SAN DIEGO — Samsung BioLogics, the contract drug manufacturing arm of South Korea’s Samsung Group, is planning to provide development support services to small pharmaceutical firms.

Samsung BioLogics CEO Kim Tae-han said Tuesday that the company would “extend its business scope to into the field of (drug) development services” to widen its business portfolio beyond contract manufacturing.

“Now that we’ve secured global competitiveness in contract manufacturing, we’re extending into the realm of development services,” Kim said in an interview with the Korean media on the sidelines of the ongoing 2017 Bio International Convention in San Diego.

As a development service provider, Samsung BioLogics will offer small and mid-sized drug developers support for mid-stage drug development processes such as selecting the best cell lines for a particular drug, and optimizing drug production and scale-up processes.

The Samsung company is already in talks with “multiple companies” about striking deals in the development services front, though it cannot reveal details at the moment, Kim said.

According to the CEO, Samsung has already begun to hire new talent trained in the development services, noting that its Manufacturing Science and Technology team were already qualified to handle such services.

In addition, Kim said that new drug development is also an agenda that remains on the table for Samsung BioLogics. However, the firm has yet to decide on the types of diseases and drug it would aim to develop drugs for, and the methods under which it would pursue new drug development.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)