Life Science Today 007 – Samsung Biologics, Moderna (again), Microparticles, and Qiagen
Originally Published as The Niche Podcast
Introduction
Welcome to The Niche Podcast – Your weekly 5-minute rundown of the biotech, clinical research, and applied science industries. I’m your host, Dr. Noah Goodson. This week, Samsung Biologics builds big, Modern (again), Microparticles for timed-release chemotherapy, and Qiagen says ‘no’ to acquisitions.
Samsung Biologics Builds Super Plant
Samsung Biologics has announced plans to build a fourth massive manufacturing plant to their growing operation in the Incheon Free Economic Zone outside of Seoul of South Korea. The “super plant” will have over 256 million square feet of space and provide next-gen operational automation. The investment of ~2 billion USD signals Samsung Biologics continued focus on becoming one of the largest and most successful biological manufacturing solutions in the world.
Founded in 2011, Samsung Biologics was creating with a vision of becoming the most competitive contract development and management organization in the biopharmaceutical space. They followed this path by rapidly developing a series of high-quality facilities and securing major contacts. They have won numerous awards for production quality, timeliness, and plant design but their sales did not begin to pick up heavily until 2018. They accelerated through 2019, but it is this year where things have really taken off. In Q2 of 2020 in the midst of COVID-19 the company put up 294% year over year manufacturing sales and pushed their operational profit ratio to 26.4%.
That is just the CMO wing of the business. They have also developed a profitable contract development wing to push new products through the approval pipeline for clients and clinical research organization (CRO) to see clinical trials completed. Together, this makes them a one-stop-shop for clinical development, testing, and manufacturing. The new plant is set to open in 2022 with an estimated price tag of $2 billion USD, but at the current rate, they be able to pay cash for it on the profits of 2020 alone. The next step will likely be increased marketing to European and US markets. The economic downturn in japan and US-China tensions will not hurt the Korean companies’ chances of securing development and manufacturing pipelines.
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Moderna (again)
Two weeks ago, I reported on Moderna possibly falling behind the more developed companies in the COVID-19 vaccine race. It turns out I was wrong. Last week they secured a $1.54 billion deal to deliver 100 million doses of their vaccine to the US with the option for an additional 400 million doses as needed. This brings their US backing to a whopping $2.48 billion, the highest of any company, and secures their place as a top contender in the vaccine space. Their phase 3 trial began on July 27th and enrollment is expected to be complete by the end of September, keeping them well ahead of companies like Johnson and Johnson who began their phase 1 trial at the end of July.
Timed Release Microparticles for Chemotherapy
We are all familiar with idea of a slow release tablet – a medicine designed to be released at a slower time interval in order to increase the effectiveness. But what about timed release medicine? Researchers at MIT published a paper on august 12th utilizing a microparticle technology to control the temporal release windows of a chemotherapy treatment. This treatment for certain tumors targets the STING path, promoting an immune response. To do this, multiple doses of the therapy at specific time intervals are required. For many tumors that may require surgery to access, multiple injections just days apart are impractical.
Xueguang Lu and colleagues designed microparticles made out of polylactic-co-glycolic acids (PLGAs) with different specific properties. By varying the chemistry of the PLGA particles, they could precisely control the release of drug stored inside to occur at 4-day intervals. They then combined three different particles with three different release schedules into a single injection. This method created a timed release of chemotherapy drugs and resulted in remarkable therapeutic impact, cutting tumor recurrence by 75%. The technology is currently in multiple clinical trials in humans.
Qiagen Says "No" to Acquisitions
Qiagen investors voted down a $12.5 billion buyout by Thermo Fisher last week. Just a year ago the company was facing a change in leadership, falling profits, and challenges across multiple fronts. Through the transition, Qiagen flirted with a number of offers, and this latest proposition from Thermo Fisher was bumped by $1 billion last minute, but it still was not enough. COVID-19 testing has been a boon for Qiagen who has quadrupled reagent production to keep up with COVID testing. Based on rising production and global demand, only 47% of the investors voted to sell, a far cry from the two-thirds required. Qiagen can expect COVID testing to be high through the next 18 months and will likely use the profits to reposition into more lucrative and sustainable long-term ventures.
Closing Credits
Thanks for joining me on The Niche Podcast; your weekly 5-minute summary of top news in the biotech, clinical trials, and applied science industries. You can find us on your favorite podcast app. Like, comment, subscribe, and most of all share with your friends in the industry. If you like what you hear, please rate and review, it really helps us. Once again, I’m Dr. Noah Goodson, I’ll see you next week.
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Story References
https://samsungbiologics.com/front/en/mediaCenter/pressReleasesView.do?boardSeq=781&schBoardCtgryCcd=&schString=&schBoardYear=&boardDtm=1597071600000&page=1#
https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases
https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/12/556/eaaz6606
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/thermo-fisher-s-12-5b-deal-for-qiagen-flops-as-covid-19-test-demand-lights-new-path-forward
Music by Luke Goodson
www.soundcloud.com/lukegoodson