On the back of several strong quarters and a year already chock-full of manufacturing accords, Korean CDMO Samsung Biologics is adding yet another project to its contract manufacturing Rolodex.
Samsung Bio this week said it inked a series of production pacts with an unnamed European pharma in a tie-up worth a total of $668 million.
Samsung Bio’s latest undertaking, which will see the CDMO provide manufacturing services to its client through 2031, brings the company’s cumulative new contract value this year to more than $4 billion.
Samsung Bio revealed little about its customer or the types of products it will produce under the deal. Rather than commenting on the latest production tie-up directly, the company’s CEO, John Rim, pledged in a statement to continue pouring the proceeds from Samsung Bio’s contracting projects back into the CDMO’s production capabilities.
Following a slate of high-value deals this year, Samsung Biologics is now partnered with 17 of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies, the manufacturer said in a release.
Next up, the CDMO is adding antibody-drug conjugate services, including process development and conjugation, to its portfolio of offerings, Samsung Bio said.
Samsung Biologics has been in the habit of disclosing high-dollar contracts with unnamed customers in recent months.
Back in July, the CDMO announced a $1.05 billion manufacturing partnership with an unnamed U.S. drugmaker set to run through 2030. The company followed up that reveal with news of a $1.2 billion contract with another anonymous, Asia-based pharmaceutical company in October. The latter deal is set to last through December 2037.
Prior to those agreements, Samsung Bio expanded a long-running partnership with Belgium's UCB to manufacture an anti-tau candidate in progressive supranuclear palsy and retooled a deal with Baxter Healthcare to provide unspecified production services through 2034.
While many other CDMOs have struggled to come to grips with the post-pandemic contracting industry, Samsung Bio has largely avoided headwinds since rising to prominence several years ago.
During the third quarter, the company’s revenue increased 15% to 1.2 trillion Korean won (about $857 million), a performance Samsung Bio attributed in large part to the continuing expansion of its manufacturing footprint in South Korea.
As of late October, the company’s total 2024 contract volume had surpassed $3.3 billion.