Samsung Biologics and Lilly Partner to Accelerate Delivery of COVID-19 Antibody Therapeutics

Samsung Biologics and Eli Lilly (Lilly) have entered into a long-term manufacturing agreement that is expected to accelerate the global supply for Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody therapies to make these therapies more globally accessible to patients.

Lilly and Samsung Biologics initially entered into a manufacturing partnership in May of 2020 to address the increasingly urgent demand for COVID-19 treatments worldwide. Despite global challenges of securing stable supply of raw materials amid the pandemic, Samsung was able to manufacture and deliver an initial supply of good manufacturing practice-compliant APIs within five months of signing the contract with Lilly. The timeline for tech transfer was also significantly reduced to less than three months because of 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, in a Nov. 17, 2020 company press release. “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, in the press release.

Source: Samsung Biologics