GSK deal with Samsung to ensure supply of biologics

A new partnership between South Korea’s Samsung Biologics (KS: 207940) and UK-based GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) will ensure additional capacity for the manufacture and supply of GSK's novel biologics.

Under the terms of the deal, Samsung will be paid more than $231 million over the next eight years, initially to produce Benlysta (belimumab), the standard of care in active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

The move follows a 2017 investment of $139 million in GSK’s biopharmaceutical manufacturing site in Maryland, USA, to support growing demand for the product.