It’s a remarkable honeymoon GSK and Samsung Biologics are enjoying. Already linked by one major deal, the companies have furthered their relationship with a larger contract.
In this one, U.K. drugmaker GSK will pay (PDF) Korean contract manufacturer Samsung Biologics $296 million in a deal that runs through 2030.
A regulatory filing that revealed the contract did not specify which medicines Samsung will produce. It did show that the contract figure adds up to nearly 27% of Samsung’s sales revenue in 2021.
The deal comes as Samsung is opening what it has dubbed its “Super Plant”—the fourth manufacturing facility at the company’s sprawling complex in Incheon, South Korea. Samsung spent $2 billion to build the Super Plant. In all, the company's plans call for six factories to be constructed at the site as Samsung is making an ambitious push to become a major player in the CDMO arena.
In May of 2020, GSK and Samsung hooked up on a $231 million, eight-year deal to produce biologic products including lupus drug Benlysta.
That deal came on the heels of Samsung pairing with Vir Biotechnology on a $362 million contract to produce antibodies. That agreement also involved GSK as the company partnered with Vir in a COVID-19 antibody program.