Samsung Biologics to Acquire PolyPeptide for $1.8 Billion, Expanding from Antibody Contract Manufacturing into Peptide APIs

Samsung Biologics is extending its footprint from large-molecule biologics into another rapidly expanding manufacturing field. The company has proposed an all-cash acquisition valued at approximately CHF 1.46 billion, equivalent to $1.81 billion, to acquire all shares of Swiss peptide API manufacturer PolyPeptide. If the transaction is completed, Samsung will no longer be known only for businesses such as antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates, but will also be able to directly serve demand for peptide drugs from development through commercial production.

Under the acquisition terms, Samsung will make a public tender offer for PolyPeptide at CHF 44.31 per share. The target company’s independent directors without conflicts of interest have unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the offer, while its largest shareholder, which holds approximately 55.65%, has committed to tender its shares, providing significant support for the transaction to clear the minimum acceptance threshold. The formal public tender offer is expected to begin by the end of August 2026, with completion targeted by year-end.

The core asset PolyPeptide brings is not a single drug, but the ability to develop and manufacture peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients at scale. Its six production facilities are located across Sweden, Belgium, France, India, and the United States. They can fill a technical gap in Samsung’s existing manufacturing platform while bringing it closer to customers in Europe and the United States. Samsung can also use the acquisition to extend its services into areas such as obesity, diabetes, and oncology, where numerous peptide drugs are already under development.

The industry backdrop to the transaction is the rapid expansion of peptide supply-chain demand driven by GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs. The chemical synthesis, purification, and scaled production of peptides require specialized capabilities, and pharmaceutical companies may not be willing to build comprehensive in-house capacity even when they control drug candidates. For large contract development and manufacturing organizations, acquiring an established platform can provide faster market entry than building facilities from scratch and allow them to support a single customer’s development programs across multiple drug modalities.

The price can be viewed from different perspectives. The offer represents a premium of approximately 6.1% over the closing price on the trading day before the announcement. However, based on the unaffected share price on April 10, 2026, before acquisition rumors emerged, the premium cited by Samsung reaches 40%; compared with the volume-weighted average price over the 60 trading days preceding the announcement, it is approximately 11.6%. These differences reflect that the market had already partly priced in a potential acquisition and show that the transaction price cannot be assessed using only a single benchmark.

The acquisition is not yet certain. The public tender offer must reach a minimum acceptance threshold of two-thirds of the fully diluted share capital, receive regulatory approvals, and satisfy other conditions. After completion, Samsung plans to compulsorily acquire the remaining minority shares and delist PolyPeptide from the Swiss stock exchange. Even if the process proceeds smoothly, whether site integration, quality-system alignment, and additional capacity can be converted into customer orders will still determine whether the transaction genuinely strengthens Samsung’s competitiveness in the global pharmaceutical manufacturing market.