Biopharmaceutical heavyweights have descended on the Pacific coast city of San Diego, turning the world's largest biotech gathering into a proving ground for the country's fast-expanding contract manufacturing ambitions.
The 2026 BIO International Convention, known as BIO USA, runs from Monday through Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center under the theme "Driven by Purpose," drawing some 20,000 industry figures from more than 70 countries.
For the first time, the event features a dedicated session on Korea's bioindustry, titled "Korea Rising: Don't Be Late to Asia's Next Innovation Hub," underscoring the sector's growing global standing.
The Korea Pavilion, run for a 23rd year by the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization, hosts 51 domestic firms and institutions, with 29 set to present pipelines and platform technologies on an open stage.
"BIO USA is a festival and a battleground where investment and partnering in the global bioindustry unfold most dynamically," said Lee Seung-gyu, vice chairman of the association.
"This year we have significantly strengthened our linked programs, including an integrated Korea Night, and we will provide all-out support so that Korean firms can generate tangible business results with global big pharma and investors."
Yet the fiercest contest on the show floor is a domestic one: a race between Samsung Biologics, the established titan, and Lotte Biologics, the upstart challenger, to win a larger share of a post-China manufacturing order.
The timing may be unusually favorable.
Washington's effort to reshape supply chains away from China has handed Korean contract development and manufacturing organizations, or CDMOs, a rare opening.
Samsung Biologics arrives as the clear front-runner.
The company is staging a solo booth for a 14th consecutive year, the only Korean company to have done so since its founding in 2011.
Samsung is leveraging its growing global footprint to appeal to multinational drugmakers seeking to diversify production beyond a single geography.
In December, it agreed to acquire a biologics plant in Rockville, Maryland, from GlaxoSmithKline for about $280 million, securing its first U.S. manufacturing base. The acquisition was completed in the first quarter.
The strategy is already paying off.
Samsung Biologics booked a record 6.8 trillion won ($4.4 billion) in new orders last year and now counts 17 of the world's 20 largest pharmaceutical companies among its clients.
James Choi, executive vice president, is slated to appear as a panelist in the Korea Rising session, while Jeff Mason, sales director for the Americas, will discuss the company's manufacturing capabilities in an on-site presentation.
For Celltrion, attending for a 17th consecutive year, the focus is artificial intelligence.
The company secured a booth in the event's AI zone to showcase AI-driven drug discovery, multispecific antibody design and antibody-drug conjugate technologies.
"Through this event, Celltrion plans to actively promote its future business vision and technological competitiveness as it grows beyond biosimilars into a global innovative-drug company," a company spokesperson said.
If Samsung represents Korean CDMO at its most muscular, Lotte Biologics embodies its boldest gamble.
The unit has emerged as a new growth engine for Lotte Group as the retail-heavy conglomerate grapples with liquidity strains elsewhere in its empire, a high-stakes bet on a future built around biologics.
In a November reshuffle, Shin Yoo-yeol, the eldest son of Chairman Shin Dong-bin, was named co-chief executive alongside James Park, taking direct command of a domestic affiliate for the first time.
Park himself is a Samsung Biologics veteran who previously led global sales at the larger rival. Lotte has also recruited several former Samsung executives in an effort to import the market leader's playbook.
The challenger arrives at BIO USA with fresh evidence of progress.
On Monday, Lotte announced it had obtained occupancy approval for the first plant at its Songdo Bio Campus in Incheon, completing the main construction roughly two years after breaking ground.
The 120,000-liter antibody facility, equipped with eight 15,000-liter stainless-steel bioreactors and a real-time monitoring system, will begin commissioning and validation work in the second half of the year.
Lotte is pursuing a "dual-site" strategy that links the Songdo campus with its Syracuse facility in New York, with Syracuse handling early-stage and clinical work and Songdo dedicated to large-scale commercial production.
That strategy is beginning to gain traction.
Lotte signed three contracts last year and added more in 2026, including a January deal with Japan's Rakuten Medical to produce a head-and-neck cancer therapy and a May agreement expanding antibody production work for Britain's Ottimo Pharma.
Lotte Biologics remains in the red, and utilization at its lone revenue-generating Syracuse plant fell to about 14 percent in the first quarter from 74 percent a year earlier after a key customer contract expired.
Winning marquee orders has become both a corporate imperative and a personal test for Shin, whose standing as heir apparent is increasingly tied to the venture's fortunes.
Samsung, for its part, is positioning itself as the partner of choice in a reordered market, arguing that speed and scale will prove decisive as pharmaceutical companies diversify away from Chinese suppliers.
For now, the two Korean firms are chasing the same prize from opposite ends of the field — one defending a hard-won lead, the other scrambling to close the gap.
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