South Korea based Samsung Biologics' partnership with Eli Lilly and Company is expected to greatly accelerate the global supply for Lilly's COVID-19 antibody (Ab) therapies through a long-term manufacturing agreement, 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 Biologics' 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 5 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 3 months, due in large part to close communications and coordination between technical, quality, supply chain, and regulatory experts from both companies.