Samsung Biologics secures stake in Swiss biotech firm

Korean contract manufacturer Samsung Biologics said Wednesday it will be participating in the series A funding round held for Araris, a Swiss biotech company that develops antibody-drug conjugate technologies. ADC refers to a class of drugs mainly designed as a targeted therapy for treating cancer.

According to the company, Samsung Biologics will be making its investments in the Swiss biotech company with Samsung Life Science Fund -- a fund co-managed by Samsung Biologics and tradings company Samsung C&T. The fund, worth some 150 billion won ($113 million) in value, had been created in 2021 with Samsung Biologics' bid to discover new business opportunities in the biotech sector.

The investment funds, which remain undisclosed to the public in amount due to the contracts made between Samsung Biologics and Araris, will be mainly used to support Araris' future development of potential candidates for ADCs.

Samsung Biologics further said that with this investment, the company aims to expand its ADC-related portfolio and take active participation in production of ADC drugs by collaborating with Araris.

"Araris has the potential to develop the best ADC (utilizing) treatments -- and together, in the future, we will explore the possibility of collaboration in manufacturing and developing new drugs," said John Rim, CEO of Samsung Biologics.

The investment in the company specializing in ADC follows Rim's designation of ADCs as one of company's future growth engines.

In January, during the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference held in San Francisco, Rim had unveiled the company's plans to construct a new ADC manufacturing plant with a production capacity of 240,000 liters in Songdo, Incheon, by the first half of this year.

According to Rim, the company is putting in efforts to "vertically integrate" the production and CDMO processes for ADC products.