Samsung BioLogics inks deal with GSK

View of Samsung BioLogics' biomanufacturing plant in Songdo, Incheon. [YONHAP]

Samsung BioLogics announced Friday that it has signed a contract manufacturing organization deal worth more than 283.9 billion won ($229 million) with British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Under the eight-year contract, Samsung Electronics' biopharmaceutical affiliate will be in charge of providing additional capacity for manufacturing GSK’s lupus treatment Benlysta (belimumab), along with other biologics products depending on GSK’s future needs, the company said. Technology transfer and prototype production will begin this year to start commercial production of Benlysta in 2022.

Samsung BioLogics has a total production capacity of 364,000 liters. Its first plant has a capacity of 30,000 liters; its second plant has a capacity of 154,000 liters and the capacity of its third plant, the largest in the world, is 180,000 liters. If orders increase in the future, the company is also considering an expansion of production facilities by building a fourth plant.

“Today’s agreement with Samsung BioLogics complements and reinforces our existing world-class pharmaceutical manufacturing capability and will help ensure we can continue to deliver the transformative medicines that patients need,” Regis Simard, president of GSK's Pharmaceuticals Supply Chain, said.

BY KWON YOO-JIN [kim.yeonah@joongang.co.kr]