WuXi Biologics' biggest competitor secures another major order

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After a long stretch of silence, Samsung Biologics suddenly announced to the public on March 18: in a latest collaboration with Sandoz, jointly advancing the global commercialization of roughly five biosimilar drugs.

The only known product disclosed in the partnership is a vedolizumab biosimilar targeting α4β7 in Samsung Biologics’ pipeline, code-named SB36. The innovator behind the drug is Takeda, and it is used to treat ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. According to the data from Pharma Intelligence (Yi Yao Mo Fang), this drug is an innovator biologic product in the global sales TOP 10 for 2025, with annual sales of approximately $6.1 billion, and there are no signs of weakening. Sandoz is basically waiting for the innovator’s patent exclusivity period to expire, then rapidly hit the market by leveraging Samsung Biologics’ strength.

This naturally makes one think of Samsung Biologics’ longtime rival, WuXi Biologics. Among Asia’s bio-pharmaceutical CDMO companies, Samsung Biologics and WuXi Biologics are the most globally recognized in terms of strength. Although in recent years geopolitical factors have pushed Western and European pharmaceutical companies to place orders in regions such as South Korea, Japan, and India, WuXi Biologics has continued to maintain its own advantages. Especially after Samsung Biologics’ revenue scale surpassed WuXi Biologics for consecutive years in 2023, by 2025 it was unexpectedly caught up by WuXi Biologics.

According to the earnings guidance released by WuXi Biologics on February 11, the company’s full-year 2025 revenue was about $3.157 billion, an increase of about 16.7%; while on January 21 Samsung Biologics released its financial report showing full-year revenue of about $3.1 billion.

But the difference in thinking between the two is still very clear: Samsung Biologics insists that biosimilars are the development direction, while WuXi Biologics is expanding in all directions, working to broaden its business scope. The competition between these two companies will become even more intense in the coming years.

Biosimilars are already ramping up

Samsung Biologics is already extremely familiar with the process of “bypassing patents via packaged imitation and partnering with others for promotion.” This time, the vedolizumab biosimilar drug with Sandoz as the lead is taking precisely this route.

In fact, Samsung Biologics was born with biosimilars in mind. In 2011, Samsung Biologics was established. At that time, globalized pharma was gradually entering the “patent cliff” era. Samsung Group believed that one day, biologics represented by monoclonal antibodies would also hit the patent cliff, so it invested in setting up Samsung Biologics. The main market for biosimilars is the United States, and Samsung is very optimistic about this.

However, the imagined explosive boom in biosimilars never truly arrived. When the timeline came around 2021, WuXi Biologics’ performance data across various angles looked more impressive than Samsung Biologics. But as factors such as geopolitics and the bio-manufacturing industry entering a winter period took effect, China’s CXO industry was hit broadly and harshly. As an alternative for the Western and European markets, Samsung Biologics was pushed onto the global stage, and its growth phase began.

Samsung Biologics once released a market research report stating that lower-priced biosimilars are dominating the U.S. pharmaceutical market. For example, there are already nine adalimumab biosimilars globally, and the price gap between high-price and low-price versions compared to the innovator “Humira” varies by 5%–81%. Last year, Humira’s sales fell year-over-year by 50%, and the former “king of drugs” has tumbled from its throne.

As of now, Samsung Biologics has rolled out more than a dozen biosimilar products. In addition to adalimumab, there are also biosimilars for trastuzumab, bevacizumab, and more. According to financial report data, revenue for this segment had already reached around $1 billion in 2024, accounting for about 30% of the company’s total revenue. Last year, this portion of revenue rose further, with its share of total revenue reaching nearly 40%.

There will be many more biosimilar drugs whose patents expire later on. That means Samsung Biologics can still catch another wave of momentum. But innovator manufacturers are not easy to deal with either. Although Takeda’s regulatory protection period for vedolizumab is until this May, in Takeda’s latest annual report the company clearly states that some key patents do not expire until 2032. Takeda said: “Any biosimilar drug seeking to be marketed before 2032 must address the risks of patent infringement and issues related to effectiveness.”

ADC business is already being fought for in China

Over the past year, the legislative process for the U.S. biosafety bill has stalled, and since WuXi Biologics does not have too many clearly defined external factors interfering, its business has also entered a steady track. In addition, WuXi Biologics has a powerful subsidiary, WuXi AppTec Alliance, which has been making a name for itself in the ADC sub-segment. The ADC manufacturing process is complex and involves multiple steps; a single company can hardly complete everything. As a result, ADC manufacturing outsourcing rates reach 70%, significantly higher than other biologic drugs.

WuXi AppTec Alliance can now provide WuXi Biologics with plenty of performance contributions, and this part of the business is expected to remain stable in the future. Data from research reports indicates that the CDMO market size for ADC drugs in China is expected to grow from $830 million to $2.45 billion during 2026–2030. But Samsung Biologics’ ADC business may be catching up soon. The company’s 2025 performance shows that ADC orders have become a key driver pushing revenue and profit growth.

Order volume and capacity are the key lifelines for CDMO companies. Both Samsung Biologics and WuXi AppTec Alliance are racing to build capacity. On January 14 this year, WuXi AppTec Alliance acquired Dongyao Pharmaceutical with a capacity of 20,000 liters for HK$3.1 billion at a 99% premium, aiming to strengthen its capacity advantage. In April last year, Samsung Biologics’ ADC drug-focused 5th plant located in Songdo, South Korea officially began operations, with capacity of 180,000 liters. Together with the plants that had already been commissioned earlier, by the end of 2025 Samsung Biologics’ total production capacity will reach 785,000 liters, putting it nearly at the combined total of WuXi Biologics and WuXi AppTec Alliance.

Moreover, Samsung Biologics expects that its 5th plant, which has not fully ramped up yet, will help achieve 15%–20% revenue growth in 2026. In addition, Samsung Biologics also plans to build a 6th plant. That plant will also have ADC production capacity, adding about 180,000 liters of capacity, with completion expected in 2027.

WuXi Biologics doesn’t have to be overly panicked either. Samsung Biologics values the “long runway with thick snow” business model, and so it only does CDMO. Meanwhile, WuXi Biologics is one of the few industry players focusing on end-to-end capabilities from early-stage R&D to large-scale production as a CRDMO. Precisely because of this scarcity, in February this year, Goldman Sachs upgraded WuXi Biologics’ buy rating.

Written by | Miao Miao

Edited by | Jiang Yun Jia Ting

Operations | Twenty-Three

Illustration | Visual China