As Samsung Biologics’ contract manufacturing business continues to fire on all cylinders, the CDMO has earned a unique distinction among Korean biopharmas following a highly profitable 2025.
Last year, Samsung Bio grew sales more than 30% to around 4.6 trillion Korean won ($3.1 billion) and lifted its 2025 operating profit to roughly 2.07 trillion won ($1.4 billion), the company reported Wednesday.
In just the fourth quarter, Samsung Bio’s revenue hit 1.28 trillion won (roughly $872 million), marking a 35% jump over the sum it generated for the same period in 2024.
Notably, Samsung Bio is now the first Korean biotech or pharmaceutical company to surpass the 2 trillion won annual profit threshold, Korea Biomedical Review and other local news outlets reported this week.
In elaborating on its lucrative 2025, the CDMO credited its performance to the “full utilization” of three of its South Korean drug manufacturing facilities—known simply as “Plants 1 through 3”—as well as the newer Plant 4, which “also reached full utilization” in last year’s third quarter, according to a Jan. 21 press release.
Meanwhile, Samsung Bio isn’t stopping with that current quartet of production plants: A fifth plant in South Korea is expected to begin generating revenue this year, and Samsung Bio says it has also secured land for a third manufacturing campus, also in Korea, which is expected to bolster the company’s capabilities in advanced conjugation, cell and gene therapies and antibody vaccines.
Over in the U.S., the company has also teed up a $280 million deal to acquire a former GSK manufacturing plant in Rockville, Maryland, which will mark Samsung Bio’s first American facility. That deal is expected to close in this year’s first quarter, after which Samsung Bio says it anticipates making additional investments to boost capacity and upgrade technology at the site.
Samsung Bio has said it intends to retain more than 500 employees at the Rockville campus. As part of the transaction, the CDMO has also signed on to produce two undisclosed GSK medicines.
“As we move forward, our planned expansion of manufacturing capabilities, including the addition of a U.S. manufacturing footprint, will further enhance supply chain resilience and responsiveness to global client needs,” Samsung Bio CEO John Rim said in a statement.
Samsung Bio has continued to lasso significant clients through its CDMO work, notably picking up a $1.3 billion contract with an unnamed U.S. pharma in September, marking its second biggest project since the company’s inception in 2011, local outlet Korea JoongAng Daily reported at the time.
Overall, the company secured three contracts worth more than 1 trillion won ($681 million) last year, with cumulative orders since its founding now exceeding $20 billion, Samsung Bio said in a presentation accompanying its earnings materials.
Given its performance last year and strong footing heading into 2026, Samsung Biologics says it expects to grow revenues by 15% to 20% over the coming 12 months.
The solid showing from Samsung Bio is nothing new. The CDMO has been on a largely unbroken forward march in recent years, largely evading the contract manufacturing doldrums that befell many of its peers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.Â