South Korea-based Samsung Biologics announced this week that it had entered a strategic partnership with Pfizer to manufacture its multi-product biosimilars portfolio, expanding on a previous agreement established in back in March.
Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Samsung will provide large-scale manufacturing capabilities using its newest facility, plant 4. The facility, known as the "super plant," is located in Songdo, South Korea.
John Rim, president and CEO of Samsung Biologics, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, saying “This new meaningful partnership comes just as our Plant 4 is fully completed early this month as we had previously committed and are on the move for future expansion into our second campus in order to provide our clients with even more flexible and advanced manufacturing technology.”
Plant 4 is the world’s largest single biomanufacturing plant, with a production capacity of 240,000 liters, giving Samsung Biologics a total of 604,000 liters capacity, amounting to over a quarter of the total global CDMO production at its Bio Campus I.
Samsung is also pursuing the growth of its own biosimilars business. Last year, the company bought Biogen’s equity stake in their joint venture, Samsung Bioepis, for $2.3 billion. Samsung Bioepis has had several successful biosimilars on the market, and four others are in phase 3 clinical trials.
