Pfizer inks $411m biosimilar contract in busy week for Samsung Bio

Pfizer has expanded a partnership with Samsung Biologics, securing space in the Korean CDMO’s recently opened fourth plant to produce multiple biosimilar products.

A co-development deal inherited through the acquisition of Hospira in 2015 means Pfizer leverages Celltrion for the production of commercial biosimilar Inflectra (infliximab-dyyb), but a contract announced this week sees the Big Pharma firm team with another Korean drugmaker for its biosimilar portfolio, Samsung Biologics.

According to the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), this “strategic partnership” will cover the “long-term commercial manufacturing of Pfizer’s multi-product portfolio.”

The news comes just three months after Pfizer inked an initial deal with Samsung Biologics worth KRW 241 billion ($186 million).

A regulatory filing puts the cost of this latest contract at KRW 535 billion, or $411 million, representing 17.83% of Samsung Biologics’ sales in the latest fiscal year.

The specific products to be made by Samsung Biologics were not disclosed, but Pfizer has seven approved biosimilars including Inflectra and several more in its pipeline.

They will, however, be made at Samsung Biologics’ fourth plant at its site in Songdo, Incheon. The proclaimed “world’s largest biomanufacturing plant,” first announced in August 2020, began limited production last October. While lauding the expedition of the construction timeline for its fifth plant this week, the firm revealed full construction of the plant is now complete with the full capacity of 240,000 liters to come online in due course.

Pfizer is not the only firm to ink a major deal with Samsung Biologics over the past few days. According to another regulatory filing, an undisclosed US pharmaceutical company has signed a contract worth KRW 147 billion ($113 million) with the CDMO.