Samsung Biologics may be a latecomer, but it seems to have grown quickly thanks to its production capacity. Fujifilm, as a long-standing biopharmaceutical CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organizations), has high credibility and a strong network, and it is also strengthening its production capabilities.
On the 8th at the Bio Japan 2025 exhibition in Yokohama, Japan, when asked how they view Samsung Biologics, a latecomer in CDMOs, a Fujifilm official replied this way.
Bio Japan, which opened that day, is Asia's largest bioindustry exhibition hosted by the Japan Bioindustry Association (JBA). This year, with Regenerative Medicine Japan and healthTECH JAPAN also held together, the scale expanded into a "comprehensive life science expo." Participating corporations increased from 1,052 last year to 1,140, and the number of business partnering (concluding cooperative relationships) cases surpassed 24,000.
◇Samsung Biologics' first standalone booth… "Confidence as a global CDMO"
Competition among Korea, China, and Japan is heating up over the global CDMO market worth 500 trillion won. With uncertainty growing amid U.S.-China tensions and the United States' pharmaceutical tariff policy, leading corporations in each country appear to be moving to reshape the landscape.
According to the U.S. biotech outlet GEN, Switzerland's Lonza ranked No. 1 in global CDMO revenue last year. It was followed by U.S. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Catalent, Samsung Biologics, and China's WuXi Biologics in second to fifth place. Seventh was Japan's Fujifilm. Although Samsung Biologics entered the bio CDMO market in 2012, one year later than WuXi and Fujifilm, it has grown rapidly by securing the world's largest production capacity of 784,000 liters (L).
At this exhibition, Samsung Biologics set up its first standalone booth measuring 36㎡ (about 11 pyeong). What drew attention was the booth layout. Centered on the Samsung Biologics booth, China's WuXi AppTec was on the left, and Fujifilm of Japan had a large booth at the third spot on the right. It formed a layout as if the global CDMO big three were lined up in a row.
Moriya Seiji (Seiji Moriya), an official at a Japanese venture capital (VC) firm who visited the venue that day, said, "This Bio Japan certainly seems to have CDMOs as the biggest keyword," and added, "WuXi, Samsung, and Fuji set up booths side by side, and Lonza was positioned right in front of them, making their presence even more pronounced."
Lonza, the world's No. 1 CDMO company, did not set up a separate booth at this event and only took part in the Swiss joint booth (Swiss Biotech Pavilion). Lonza is scheduled to give a presentation on the third day of the event on the topic of "commercialization strategies for cell and gene therapies."
◇Fuji: "Expanding production in the U.S. and Japan," WuXi: "Targeting the globe with ADCs"
The keynote speech at the opening ceremony that day was delivered by Goto Teiichi (Teiichi Goto), head of Fujifilm Holdings Japan. He said, "We will expand integrated services that provide end-to-end support from early stages to commercial production for antibodies, ADCs (antibody-drug conjugates), mRNA (messenger RNA), and CGTs (cell and gene therapies), and increase antibody drug production capacity to 750,000 L by 2028, five times the current level."
Fujifilm invested $3.2 billion (4.48 trillion won) in North Carolina in the United States to build a biopharmaceutical production facility. Comprising eight 20,000 L bioreactors, the plant is set to secure 320,000 L of capacity within the year and become North America's largest CDMO hub. Goto said, "We are expanding large-scale culture tanks in Denmark and the United States, and we plan to complete a large-scale bio CDMO facility in Toyama, Japan, in 2027."
The global market is fluctuating amid U.S.-China tensions. When the U.S. Congress introduced a biosafety law last year restricting transactions with Chinese bio corporations, forecasts emerged that China's largest CDMO corporation, WuXi Biologics, would take a direct hit. Although the bill did not ultimately pass, many expect the outcome remains to be seen as the Trump administration is pushing the bill again.
Seizing the opening as the U.S. biosafety bill stalled, the WuXi group (WuXi Biologics and WuXi AppTec) set up separate standalone booths at this Bio Japan and aggressively promoted their products and technologies. Jun Hu, vice president of WuXi XDC, said during a presentation session, "We will strengthen our competitiveness in the global market through commercialization strategies for ADCs and bioconjugates."
WuXi XDC, established in 2021, is a specialized ADC contract research, development, and manufacturing (CRDMO) affiliate under WuXi Biologics, and it is set to begin operating its first commercial ADC production facility this year at As Biomedical Park in Singapore.
Meanwhile, many Korean corporations also took part in this Bio Japan. Samsung Biologics, Lotte Biologics, Kyongbo Pharmaceutical, Xcell Therapeutics, Gradiant Corporation Bio Convergence, the Korea Drug Development Fund, and others set up booths, and bio startups such as Organoid Science and Imsel also participated. The partnering sessions included Celltrion Pharm, GC Cell, Rznomics, ENCell, and Oncocross.