South Korean contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Samsung Biologics announced Monday it has made an all-cash public tender offer to acquire Switzerland-headquartered CDMO PolyPeptide Group AG. The deal, worth $1.8 billion, is designed to target one of the fastest-growing biopharmaceutical segments — peptides — and boost Samsung’s multi-modality and global manufacturing capabilities.

The acquisition, expected to be completed by the end of 2026, is the largest takeover in the history of South Korea’s biopharmaceutical industry, as the broader biopharma industry is experiencing a surge in demand for peptide-based therapeutics — including GLP-1 therapies for diabetes and obesity.

Samsung Biologics described PolyPeptide as a “top-tier peptide CDMO” with more than 70 years of experience manufacturing peptide- and oligonucleotide-based active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and producing over 1,000 therapeutic peptides to date.

“The transaction brings together Samsung Biologics’ global manufacturing scale with PolyPeptide’s specialized peptide expertise to create a differentiated, end-to-end multi-modality CDMO platform,” according to the announcement. “By combining antibody manufacturing at scale with peptide expertise, we aim to offer our clients greater flexibility, broader modalities, and more tailored end-to-end services from early-stage R&D through commercial supply.” 

Samsung Biologics said the acquisition will expand its capabilities beyond antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to include peptide therapeutics, while advancing innovation across high-growth areas such as oncology and other emerging indications. The deal also grows Samsung’s global network to include PolyPeptide’s six manufacturing facilities in Europe, India, and the United States.

“PolyPeptide operates global sites across Sweden, Belgium, France, the United States, India, together with a corporate office in Switzerland and a separate Innovation Center in Strasbourg, France, with capabilities encompassing R&D, development, and commercial manufacturing,” Samsung said.

Global network is coming together

CEO John Rim said in a statement that the deal to buy PolyPeptide bolsters Samsung Biologics’ long-term growth strategy by not only broadening its service portfolio with modality expansion into peptides including GLP-1s, but by also boosting the CDMO’s geographic reach and proximity further within Europe, India, and the U.S.  

The transaction comes on the heels of Samsung acquiring a production facility in Rockville, Maryland from GSK, establishing the CDMO’s first U.S. manufacturing presence. The Rockville site includes two cGMP manufacturing plants with a combined 60,000 liters of drug substance capacity supporting both clinical and commercial biologics production across multiple scales.

In South Korea, the completion of Plant 5 marked the beginning of Samsung Biologics’ Bio Campus II, adding 180,000 liters of capacity. The facility features digitalized systems designed to boost quality and efficiency, raising the company’s total antibody production capacity to 784,000L. Including the new U.S. site, global production capacity is expected to reach 845,000L.

Samsung Biologics also expanded its ADC operations, launching a dedicated facility with a 500L reactor and extending its collaboration with LigaChem Biosciences. Plans for a sixth plant in South Korea are underway to keep pace with rising demand for biologics.

The CDMO has secured land for Bio Campus III in Songdo, which is expected to support “expanded capabilities across advanced conjugation technologies, as well as cell and gene therapies and antibody vaccines.”

At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January, Rim promised that in 2026 Samsung Biologics “will trigger Plant 6, Bio Campus III" which he described as a future “multimodality” site. “We’re going to be starting to prepare what modalities we will actually have in there,” he added, with the CDMO planning to invest 7 trillion South Korean won to complete Bio Campus III by 2034.