For Jimin Han, the director of climate change for contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Samsung Biologics’ business strategy team, sustainability is more than just a buzzword in the pharmaceutical industry; it’s become a priority and foundation of growth strategy.
“With concerns about climate change growing globally, those in the biologics industry are eager to do their part to combat the causes. The Sustainable Markets Initiative has recently reported that the health care sector contributes over 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, highlighting the need for change in order to achieve sustainable growth,” said Han in a recent interview with CPHI Online. “Everyone is looking for opportunities and solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ways to transition to eco-friendly sources of energy. In a sector where people’s lives and health are of the highest priority, it is no surprise that the biopharma sector has embraced these opportunities for change.”
Sustainable CDMO Expansion
The market for CDMO services has been growing in recent years, and Samsung Biologics has been expanding accordingly. More and more pharmaceutical companies are realizing the value of outsourcing manufacturing services to scale-up and accelerate production.
According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report, the CDMO market is expected to grow to $157.7 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.9%, outpacing the expected CAGR of the broader pharmaceutical industry.
In the biologics space, Samsung Biologics has been expanding to meet this need by growing its capacity. It recently began partial operations at its fourth biomanufacturing plant in Songdo, South Korea. The plant, which will provide 240,000 liters of capacity when it commences full operations in 2023, is the largest single facility of its kind in the world and brings the CDMO’s total manufacturing capacity to 604,000 liters.
“At the P4 groundbreaking ceremony in late 2020, we committed to have the plant up and running by October this year. I am very proud to have delivered on that promise, and confident that this will further solidify our position as a global leading CDMO,” said John Rim, CEO and president of Samsung Biologics, in a statement on the commencement of the plant’s operations. “As a trusted partner, we will continue investing domestically and globally to support our clients worldwide and provide expanded services.”
Of course, the challenge of expanding to meet growing demand is to do so while minimizing the carbon footprint of expansion efforts. Samsung Biologics has been focused on tackling this challenge, establishing an environmental, social, and governance committee and joining several sustainability initiatives with the goal of achieving net-zero emissions throughout the biopharmaceutical supply chain and manufacturing process.
In terms of broader sustainability efforts, Han explained that Samsung Biologics is embracing the challenge of lowering emissions across the supply chain, but the responsibility to reduce emissions must be a collaborative effort among partners throughout the biopharmaceutical industry.
“Throughout the entire drug development and manufacturing process, the industry must make the effort to utilize low-carbon products. However, as CDMOs are often required to follow the ‘recipes’ prescribed by the clients, reducing greenhouse gas emissions will increasingly become a shared responsibility. Drug developers must take the initiative to embrace transitions across the process design to implement low-carbon elements from raw materials to logistics.”
Samsung Biologics involvement in the Sustainable Markets Initiative is aimed at this industry wide effort to reduce emissions. The company is the representing CDMO on SMI’s health systems task force, which partners Samsung Biologics and other industry leaders such as GSK, AstraZeneca, Merck KGaA, Novo Nordisk, Roche, and Sanofi with nonprofits and academic researchers to develop and implement measures aimed at net-zero carbon emissions across the pharmaceutical industry.
Samsung Biologics’ Emissions Reduction Goals
In its most recent ESG report, Samsung Biologics laid out its goals for reducing emissions. It also reported progress that it has made in recent years.
The report notes that Samsung Biologics reduced emissions directly related to its manufacturing processes by 32.3% from 2020 to 2021. In the short-term, its goal in reducing these Scope 1 and 2 emissions is a 54.3% decline in emissions by 2026. The CDMO also plans to reduce its Scope 3 emissions, which are tied to indirect activities associated with its manufacturing processes, such as the transport of materials, by 25.7% within this time frame.
In the long term, Samsung Biologics is committed to a net-zero emissions goal, and its involvement in several initiatives, including the SMI, the Carbon Disclosure Project, and the Frontier 1.5D initiative speak to this commitment.
The CDMO received an Honors Award in carbon management from the CDP in 2021, and it’s developing a climate risk management model in line with the South Korean government’s 2050 Carbon Neutral Strategy for the Frontier 1.5D project.
Samsung Biologics was also the first Korean life sciences company to be added to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, which recognizes companies for corporate economic, environmental, and social performance, including in areas such as climate change mitigation and sustainable supply chain performance.
“Under our ‘Driven. For a Sustainable Life.’ framework, we are continuously improving and committing our resources to create a sustainable environment, build a healthy society, and implement responsible business activities,” said Rim in a statement on the release of the 2022 ESG report. “The publication of our annual ESG report reinforces the progress we’ve made, while keeping us focused on the long-term goals we’ve set. Our sustainability initiatives reinforce the connection between the work we do and how we fulfill our mission while delivering on our core values of always putting people and the environment first.”
Remaining Challenges
While Samsung Biologics has prioritized sustainability, obtaining the ambitious goal of net-zero emissions remains a challenging project that will require collaboration and sustained effort over a number of years.
As Han noted, it’s imperative to implement robust sustainability measures, but challenges remain and the CDMO will have to stay vigilant and innovative in its efforts to reduce emissions.
“Although tackling climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions presents the biologics sector with opportunities for efficiency and cost reduction, the challenges associated with establishing new development and manufacturing processes offering a low-carbon emission profile should not be underemphasized.”
Recognizing these challenges is essential to solving them, and Samsung Biologics, along with the broader pharmaceutical industry, is increasingly devoting resources to finding solutions.
