Despite persistent uncertainty under the Trump administration’s international trade policy, Korea’s Samsung Biologics continues to snare billion-dollar contract manufacturing deals in the U.S.
As with previous production accords inked by the company, Samsung Bio has not revealed the identity of the drugmaker it will work with, though the CDMO did specify that its client is a “U.S.-based pharmaceutical company.”
All told, the contract manufacturing deal will run through Dec. 31, 2029 and net Samsung Bio 1.8 trillion Korean won (roughly $1.3 billion), the company said in a Tuesday filing on the Korea Exchange. Samsung Bio noted that the contract timeline could be changed in the future.
The deal value makes the contract the second biggest Samsung Bio has inked since its founding in 2011, local outlet Korea JoongAng Daily reported Tuesday.
The latest deal comes off a series of other high-value production contracts for Samsung Bio. Due to nondisclosure agreements common in the CDMO space, the company frequently omits the names of the clients it’s courted.
Back in May, Samsung Bio struck a separate contracting deal with an undisclosed U.S. drugmaker valued at roughly 737 billion won ($531 million). The tie-up will focus on biologics production and is set to run through the end of 2031, Samsung Bio said at the time.
Prior to that, the company last October secured a $1.2 billion manufacturing contract through 2037, in that instance with an unnamed drugmaker based in Asia. With that accord, Samsung Bio brought its total contract value for 2024 up to $3.3 billion.
The continued pace of Samsung Bio’s contract manufacturing activities in the U.S. this year suggests that at least some American companies are yet to be discouraged from international partnerships despite the Trump administration’s pharmaceutical tariff threats.
As it stands, Samsung Bio’s production footprint is concentrated in South Korea, though the company has indicated that it’s eyeing a potential U.S. manufacturing site, too.
Samsung Bio has suggested that its expansive production capacity and steady record of success “provide a competitive edge strong enough to offset tariff risks,” according to Korea JoongAng Daily.
Samsung Bio has largely avoided the contract manufacturing slowdown that hit many of its CDMO peers following the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2025’s second quarter, the company posted a revenue increase of 11% year-over-year to 1.29 trillion won ($936 million). Samsung Bio’s CEO credited that growth to the opening of a fifth manufacturing plant in Korea and the expansion of the company’s antibody-drug conjugate business, among other factors.
Meanwhile, other Korea-based manufacturers continue to pick up U.S. business, as well, with both Lotte Biologics and Cha Biotech’s U.S. CDMO arm Matica Biotechnology securing stateside production deals this year.
Lotte’s commercial manufacturing deal with an undisclosed U.S. pharma arrived in June and covers production of a late-stage asset that is “advancing into multiple new indications,” the South Korean company said this summer. The partnership, which at the time marked Lotte’s third in 2025, is expected to run through the middle of 2030.
Lotte expanded its production footprint into the U.S. in early 2023 with the acquisition of a former Bristol Myers Squibb plant in East Syracuse, New York.
As for Matica, the contract manufacturer on Tuesday announced an agreement with Cirsium Biosciences to chip in on production of the U.S. biotech’s plant-based adeno-associated virus vectors.