CEPI and Samsung Biologics collaborate on vaccine production and global access

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and South Korea’s Samsung Biologics (KRX: 207940), a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), today announced a partnership to strengthen vaccine manufacturing preparedness for future epidemic and pandemic threats.  The firm’s shares rose 2.2% on the news.

The collaboration will see Samsung Biologics join CEPI’s Vaccine Manufacturing Facility Network (VMFN) with the aim of accelerating the availability of protein-based vaccines and advancing equitable access to those vaccines during future outbreaks in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Supported by an initial budget of up to $20 million, CEPI will work with Samsung Biologics to establish a scalable, rapid manufacturing process for recombinant-protein vaccines. This will include leveraging Samsung Biologics’ well-established mammalian cell-based infrastructure — a flexible system that plays a key role in manufacturing protein-based products efficiently and at a very large scale — and its mature quality and regulatory systems. The aim is to pre-position a ready-to-activate process that can be deployed quickly when a new viral threat emerges, giving protein-based vaccines a rapid response capability in future.