With PolyPeptide manufacturing peptides such as GLP-1 medicines, Samsung Biologics has identified the deal as a way to tap into fast-growing demand for obesity drug production services.
Samsung Biologics has offered to buy PolyPeptide for CHF 1.46 billion ($1.8 billion), marking a move into peptide manufacturing.
Revenue growth at PolyPeptide, a Swiss contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), is accelerating amid rising demand for peptides, particularly in metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. The company reported 15.6% growth last year and aims to increase sales by 20% to 25% this year. PolyPeptide’s profit margins have increased, too, and are forecast to continue expanding.
Samsung Biologics, a South Korean CDMO, has built its business on antibody-based modalities. Acquiring PolyPeptide will expand the service provider’s presence in a market that has grown quickly since Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide and Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide showed the effectiveness of peptides in obesity, diabetes and other conditions.
PolyPeptide is benefiting from rising interest in using peptides to treat metabolic diseases. The CDMO has six development and production sites, certified to current good manufacturing practices, in Europe, the U.S. and India. PolyPeptide, which employs more than 1,400 people, has manufactured more than 1,000 therapeutic peptides and has 195 active projects in its pipeline.
The projects include 37 metabolic development programs that PolyPeptide is supporting for about 25 customers. PolyPeptide’s projects cover GLP-1s, orals, multiple agonists and combination therapies. The pipeline reflects the emergence of metabolic disease as a key area for the CDMO, with its share of total company sales increasing from 22% in 2021 to 57% in 2025. Metabolic sales tripled over that period.
PolyPeptide’s metabolic disease pipeline could support further growth, with the company’s seven Phase 3 programs suggesting the CDMO could add to its 10 commercial projects in the coming years. By 2028, the company predicts total sales will be double the EUR 320 million ($365 million) it delivered in 2023.
The CDMO’s facilities in Braine l’Alleud, Belgium; Torrance, California; and Malmö, Sweden, are engaged in metabolic projects. PolyPeptide is expanding the sites to meet demand, adding large-scale solid-phase peptide synthesis capacity at Braine l’Alleud and preparing to ramp up an expansion at its Malmö plant next year.
Samsung Biologics plans to launch an all-cash public tender offer to acquire PolyPeptide for CHF 44.31 ($54.63) per share. Draupnir Holding, which owns 55.65% of PolyPeptide’s share capital, has agreed to sell its stake in the CDMO to Samsung Biologics. The South Korean company needs to secure two-thirds of the shares, including Draupnir’s stake, and receive regulatory approvals in order to close the deal.
