The runaway success of weight loss drugs took the markets by storm last year, spurring huge stock gains for drugmakers like Novo Nordisk, which makes Wegovy and Ozempic. Most patients take them at home in weekly injections, using plastic, pen-like devices known as autoinjectors, filled with the liquid medication and fitted with a tiny needle as wide as two human hairs.
As demand for the drugs soars, so does the need for those devices. That growth has now minted a new billionaire: Roger Samuelsson, the 60-year-old Swedish cofounder of Switzerland-based SHL Medical, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of autoinjectors. Forbes estimates he’s worth $3 billion, largely thanks to his 69% stake in the company he cofounded in 1989. The remaining 31% is held by Swedish private equity firm EQT—which has minted seven billionaires over the years—and Athos, the family office of the billionaire Struengmann brothers. Press-shy Samuelsson, who declined multiple requests for an interview, also enjoys fast cars (he raced in the 2016 Ferrari Challenge series) and owns the 414-foot megayacht Octopus, which he bought in 2021; the yacht was built for its first owner, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen (d. 2018).
0:00 Introduction
0:20 Who Is Roger Samuelsson?
3:32 The Growing Market For Injectors
5:50 Who Is The Competition In The Space
8:50 What's Next For SHL Medical
10:45 What's Next For Roger Samuelsson
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2024/04/12/meet-the-billionaire-owned-company-making-injectors-for-blockbuster-drugs-like-ozempic/?sh=5ba1ce857607
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As demand for the drugs soars, so does the need for those devices. That growth has now minted a new billionaire: Roger Samuelsson, the 60-year-old Swedish cofounder of Switzerland-based SHL Medical, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of autoinjectors. Forbes estimates he’s worth $3 billion, largely thanks to his 69% stake in the company he cofounded in 1989. The remaining 31% is held by Swedish private equity firm EQT—which has minted seven billionaires over the years—and Athos, the family office of the billionaire Struengmann brothers. Press-shy Samuelsson, who declined multiple requests for an interview, also enjoys fast cars (he raced in the 2016 Ferrari Challenge series) and owns the 414-foot megayacht Octopus, which he bought in 2021; the yacht was built for its first owner, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen (d. 2018).
0:00 Introduction
0:20 Who Is Roger Samuelsson?
3:32 The Growing Market For Injectors
5:50 Who Is The Competition In The Space
8:50 What's Next For SHL Medical
10:45 What's Next For Roger Samuelsson
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2024/04/12/meet-the-billionaire-owned-company-making-injectors-for-blockbuster-drugs-like-ozempic/?sh=5ba1ce857607
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
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Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 SHL Medical started out in 1989 making medical devices from a single factory in Taiwan.
00:05 Now the firm is poised to capture a chunk of the booming market for weight loss drugs.
00:12 Hi everybody, I'm Brittany Lewis with Forbes Breaking News.
00:15 Joining me now is my colleague, Forbes staff writer Giacomo Tonini.
00:18 Giacomo, thanks so much for joining me.
00:20 Hey Brittany, thanks for having me.
00:21 As we know, weight loss drugs have seen a boom over the last year and so has the market
00:25 for the pen that people use to inject them.
00:28 And you're reporting one man was able to capitalize on this trend, so much so he is now a billionaire.
00:34 So let's talk about him.
00:35 His name's Roger Samuelson.
00:37 Who is he and what does he do?
00:39 Right, so Roger Samuelson is a Swedish entrepreneur.
00:43 He started this company called SHL Medical in Taiwan in 1989.
00:48 And they are one of the world's largest makers of auto injectors.
00:51 They control 25% of the global market.
00:54 And auto injectors, like you were saying, are these small pen-like devices with these
00:58 tiny needles that patients for so many different diseases use to take their medication.
01:04 Obviously, weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy have seen a huge boom in recent years,
01:08 especially last year.
01:10 And patients will take them in weekly injections.
01:14 And then there's all kinds of other drugs from psoriasis to rheumatoid arthritis that
01:19 use these kinds of, these devices called auto injectors.
01:24 And Samuelson, we now estimate, is a billionaire with an estimated net worth of $3 billion.
01:30 He owns 69% of the company, SHL Medical.
01:34 And they are one of the biggest producers of these, so much so that about 20 of the
01:41 25 largest pharma companies in the world are their customers.
01:46 And these auto injectors make up 90% of their revenues.
01:49 How did he get into this line of work?
01:51 So it's really interesting.
01:53 He was an avid boxer in his youth in Sweden.
01:57 And he realized that a lot of the boxing gloves that he had are made in Taiwan.
02:01 So in the '80s, he decided to go out to Taiwan.
02:04 And he started sort of getting products there and shipping them back to Sweden.
02:08 So this was gloves.
02:10 It was cables, even rehab equipment for elderly seniors.
02:17 And he would export these back to Sweden.
02:20 And then in 1989, he decided to sort of start his own company there.
02:24 He had a co-founder named Martin Jelf.
02:27 And then over time, they decided to focus on medical devices.
02:32 And in the mid '90s, they made one of these auto injectors.
02:37 And their first big break was this contract with a company in the US called Upjohn, which
02:41 is now part of Pfizer.
02:43 That was their first sort of big hit with these auto injectors.
02:47 And then they really pioneered them as a device that could work for many different kinds of
02:54 drugs.
02:55 And in the early 2000s, they got another huge break with a contract with Amgen for a drug
03:01 called Enbrel.
03:02 And that was one of their biggest successes.
03:04 And over time, they've just been honestly continuing to grow in that market.
03:08 They have most of their employees in Taiwan still and a huge facility there.
03:14 But they're headquartered in Switzerland now.
03:16 They also have facilities in the US, one in Florida, and then a new factory that they're
03:21 opening in South Carolina this summer that costs $200 million.
03:26 And so they're really trying to expand their manufacturing around the world, particularly
03:29 also in the US and beyond Taiwan.
03:31 A lot of drugs to treat different ailments, anything from MS to diabetes, everything in
03:36 between are injectable.
03:38 So what's the total market for drug delivery system medical technology?
03:41 Right.
03:42 So these drug delivery systems include these auto injectors that we've been talking about
03:46 also pen injectors, which are a different variety.
03:49 It was estimated to be about $2.1 billion at the end of 2022.
03:54 And it was expected to grow by 10% each year for the next 10 years.
03:59 And if you look at the kinds of drugs that the FDA has been approving, most recently,
04:05 more than 60% were drugs that have to be injected.
04:10 And so that market is going to keep growing as we keep going forward.
04:14 So now, Wigovi, Ozempic, weight loss drugs come onto the scene and they explode.
04:20 So how much have we seen that demand grow since these types of weight loss drugs have
04:25 entered the market?
04:26 So if you look at if you're just looking at SHL Medical, right now, the production volume
04:33 of these auto injectors and their revenues is less than 30%.
04:37 But they expect that in the next few years, they're going to be making half of all of
04:42 half of all the injectors they make is going to go to weight loss drugs.
04:46 And nearly a third of revenue will also come from those weight loss drugs.
04:50 And they're going to be making hundreds of millions more of these each year.
04:53 So if you if you look at that sort of together, it's going to be really a huge boom for them.
04:58 And obviously, SHL Medical aren't the only ones in the market.
05:02 Because of this astounding growth, we've seen, you know, there's two publicly traded competitors,
05:07 the Steven Auto Group.
05:09 They are expected to make the syringes for the auto injectors for Eli Lilly and their
05:17 sort of competitors to Ozempic and Wegovy.
05:19 There's another firm that was founded by a billionaire in Switzerland, Ipsomed.
05:24 They also have a deal with Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy to make these auto
05:28 injectors.
05:29 Novo Nordisk, you know, that same company also recently bought another firm to help
05:36 with the supply chain for those drugs.
05:39 We've really seen basically that Lilly and Novo are really trying to expand capacity
05:47 as much as they can to meet that skyrocketing demand.
05:50 It seems to be when it comes to weight loss drugs, almost a semi saturated market.
05:55 You're naming drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Monjaro.
05:59 What other companies are competing with SHL?
06:01 You named a few.
06:02 And does the competition really matter?
06:04 Is it making an impact?
06:06 I think at this point, from the sources I spoke to and analysts who cover the market,
06:12 there is so much more demand than supply right now.
06:15 And this is a question that I asked one of the investors in SHL, you know, if this competition
06:20 worries them.
06:21 And they said no, because of that sort of imbalance between the demand and supply, anything
06:26 that helps reduce those bottlenecks in the supply chain is really just good news for
06:30 everyone because there is sort of more than enough business to go around.
06:35 And it's going to help companies like SHL Medical grow.
06:37 I mean, if you just look at the numbers we have now.
06:40 So in 2020, Samuelson sold part of the stake in the company and two smaller investors sold
06:48 out entirely.
06:50 And Swedish private equity firm EQT bought 31 percent.
06:55 That was in 2020.
06:56 Then in 2022, they sold part of their stake to the family office of the Sturingman brothers,
07:03 who are very well-known health care investors and billionaires.
07:06 They backed the company BioNTech that made one of the first COVID vaccines.
07:11 And if you just look from 2020 to 2022, that value of SHL grew by more than 60 percent.
07:19 And so that was even before we saw this huge weight loss boom.
07:23 And you look at those competitors I talked about, they've also been growing enormously.
07:28 Steven Auto went public a couple of years ago.
07:30 And we're really seeing that growth across this industry, right?
07:34 Not just the drug manufacturers like Novonortis and Lily, but also these companies that are
07:39 making all the components, including the auto injectors.
07:42 In your experience in covering wealth, in covering billionaires, in covering any type
07:47 of company, is it common for a company to welcome this type of competition, say, OK,
07:53 this competition is good, it's making it easier for us?
07:56 And that's interesting.
07:57 I think, honestly, it depends.
08:00 Sometimes you see these huge booms that it's sort of like a rising tide lifts all boats,
08:05 right?
08:06 Obviously, we'll have to see, because some of the analysts I spoke to said that, you
08:09 know, you know, it's unclear what's going to happen with like the profit margins, maybe
08:15 for different parts of the supply chain will be different, right?
08:19 Like the glass for the vials or the plastic for the injectors, there's different profit
08:26 margins than everything.
08:27 There's going to be different bottlenecks in the supply chain.
08:31 We'll have to see what kinds of other drugs might come.
08:34 Like we know that Novonortis also has an oral version of their weight loss medication.
08:41 So that's still uncertain, but the current projections show this is going to be a continuously
08:46 booming market.
08:47 And we're seeing those results now with the growth of these companies and their valuations.
08:51 So that's good news for SHL Medical.
08:54 What's next for the company?
08:56 What's interesting is they are really expanding beyond what has been their traditional sort
09:02 of manufacturing base.
09:05 They were started in Taiwan.
09:06 They still have most of their workers there, but they're really making a push to expand
09:10 more in the U.S.
09:11 Like I said before, this new $200 million facility in South Carolina.
09:15 They're also building a new manufacturing facility in Switzerland, which is where they're
09:18 based now.
09:20 And they foresee sort of continued investment in the U.S. in the future, right?
09:24 That's where it's a huge market for these drugs we've been talking about.
09:29 And they're also looking at new products as well as new areas they could expand into.
09:35 So one of the things that the CEO, Eric Fessler, showed me when I interviewed him was one of
09:40 their most recent products from last year is an auto-injector that, once you remove
09:46 the cap, it sends a signal to the cloud that lets the patient and the doctor know that
09:52 it's been activated and the patient is taking their dose.
09:54 So this can really help track how often people are actually taking their doses.
09:59 He also said that they plan to eventually have these kinds of auto-injectors at home
10:03 treatments for cancer therapy.
10:07 One of the investors I spoke to said that if you look at the market that they currently
10:12 have, it's an incredible market.
10:14 If you bring in these weight loss drugs, it's an even bigger market.
10:18 And then if you look at things like vaccines, administering vaccines at home, it could be
10:23 an even bigger market and have an even bigger impact around the world, right?
10:26 Think about, you know, if you were to take a COVID vaccine or any other vaccine, if you
10:29 could just take these things at home and think about the impact that could have around the
10:32 world, there's a lot of things that they could do to keep growing and keep having an impact.
10:38 So the sky's the limit, really, when it comes to SHL Medical.
10:41 But I am curious, what about the billionaire behind it all, Roger Samuelson?
10:45 Is he still involved in the day-to-day operations of the company?
10:48 So he's fairly press-shy.
10:50 I did not get to speak to him, unfortunately.
10:53 He's not involved in day-to-day operations, but he is based in Switzerland, where the
10:57 company is.
10:58 He still owns the majority stake in the company and, you know, still works closely with the
11:03 CEO that I spoke to and with EQT, which is the biggest minority investor.
11:09 And so he's definitely not out of the picture, right?
11:12 He's definitely still involved with the company.
11:15 But in the meantime, he's also been diversifying.
11:17 A few years ago, he bought a mega yacht, Octopus, which was originally built for its first owner,
11:23 Paul Allen, who was one of the co-founders of Microsoft and passed away a few years ago.
11:31 He also, Samuelson also got into car racing.
11:34 He was in the Ferrari Challenge Series in 2016.
11:37 He also owns some small businesses in Sweden.
11:40 So he definitely has other things to keep him busy as well outside of SHL.
11:44 Jack Mo, thank you so much for your reporting.
11:46 Thanks so much for having me here.
11:47 Thank you.
11:48 Thank you.
11:48 Thank you.