Eli Lilly and Samsung Biologics Sign Long-Term Production Agreement for COVID-19 Antibody Therapies

Eli Lilly and Company (Indianapolis, Ind, USA) and Samsung Biologics (Incheon, Korea) have entered into a long-term manufacturing agreement that is expected to greatly accelerate the global supply for Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody therapies, with the ultimate goal of making antibody treatments more globally accessible for patients.

Lilly’s success in developing neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19, augmented with Samsung’s manufacturing scale, signals a major move forward in delivering important treatments to patients suffering from the deadly pandemic. Lilly and Samsung Biologics entered into the manufacturing partnership agreement in May of 2020 to address the increasingly urgent demand for COVID-19 treatments worldwide. Despite the global challenges of securing stable supply of raw materials amid the pandemic, Samsung was able to manufacture and deliver an initial supply of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) meeting Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and regulatory expectations within five months of contract signing by leveraging the full force of both companies’ collaborative efforts. In addition, the timeline for tech transfer was reduced dramatically to less than three months, due in large part to close communications and coordination between technical, quality, supply chain, and regulatory experts from both companies.

“Neutralizing antibodies are proving to be a potentially important tool in the fight against COVID-19, and the biopharmaceutical industry is collaborating quickly and effectively to increase the global manufacturing supply,” said David A. Ricks, Lilly’s chairman and CEO. “This agreement with Samsung supplements Lilly’s own internal manufacturing capacity and greatly expands our ability to deliver Lilly antibody therapies to patients around the world.”

“We are very pleased to deliver this product to our client Lilly in record breaking speed to aid in the war against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Tae Han Kim, CEO of Samsung Biologics. “Thanks to Lilly’s ongoing scientific efforts, patients suffering from this devastating disease are gaining new hope. Samsung Biologics is proud to be Lilly’s CDMO partner and will continue to work relentlessly and collaboratively with them to bring COVID-19 treatments to patients who need them the most, wherever they are.”

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