CEPI and Samsung Biologics collaborate to strengthen outbreak-ready vaccine production and global access

OSLO, Norway and INCHEON, South Korea, Feb. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Samsung Biologics (KRX: 207940.KS), a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), today announced a partnership to strengthen vaccine manufacturing preparedness for future epidemic and pandemic threats. 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 US$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.

Under the agreement, Samsung Biologics will also conduct a simulated outbreak response exercise using a wild-type H5 influenza as a prototype pathogen recommended by the WHO. The exercise is designed to demonstrate the speed and robustness of Samsung Biologics' end-to-end capabilities, from antigen development through to vaccine drug product manufacture to supply. This simulation will provide insights into how quickly recombinant-protein vaccines can be manufactured at scale in an outbreak scenario and help lay the grounds to prepare a generic regulatory submission dossier.

By joining CEPI's global VMFN, in a future pandemic situation, Samsung Biologics will provide CEPI with guaranteed access to up to potentially 50 million vaccine doses, and an additional one billion doses of drug substance ready to be converted into finished vaccines. This arrangement reserves doses for vulnerable populations in underserved LMIC regions and at the same time, enables Korea's national needs to be met in line with CEPI's Equitable Access Policy.

"We are delighted to welcome Samsung Biologics to CEPI's Vaccine Manufacturing Facility Network. Their recombinant protein production scale and technical capabilities add vital strength to our outbreak-response infrastructure," said Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI. "Partnering with one of the world's foremost recombinant protein contract manufacturers will help us move more rapidly from prototype sequence to production and get vaccines to the underserved global communities that need them most."

The partnership supports CEPI's 100 Days Mission — a global effort to develop vaccines within 100 days of identifying a novel pathogen with pandemic potential — by putting in place pre-agreed, end-to-end manufacturing pathways that enable rapid scaling. It also advances CEPI's strategy to broaden the technological mix and geographical reach of the VMFN with our first East Asian partner – helping to ensure more agile, distributed, and reliable supply during future disease outbreaks.

"This agreement reflects our commitment to supporting a reliable and agile vaccine supply ecosystem through continued innovation and strong collaboration. It also contributes to Korea's ability to secure timely access to vaccines during urgent public-health situations," said John Rim, President and CEO of Samsung Biologics. "By working with CEPI to advance recombinant protein vaccine development and ensure capacity for timely production when demand rises, we aim to broaden access to high-quality vaccines for patients around the world. Samsung Biologics will continue to apply its technical and manufacturing expertise to strengthen global preparedness and help build a more resilient response environment."

Additional projects to support vaccine technology transfer, regulatory preparedness, and developing vaccine innovations may be developed as the partnership with Samsung Biologics evolves. Samsung Biologics advanced large-scale GMP manufacturing capabilities will ensure reliable access to vaccine production capacity, thereby supporting effective responses for future epidemics and pandemics.

Samsung Biologics becomes the latest organisation to join CEPI's growing VMFN, which now includes manufacturing partners in Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Senegal. Together, the VMFN aims to create a globally distributed manufacturing ecosystem capable of producing vaccines at speed and scale — ensuring that populations everywhere, but particularly in LMIC regions, can access countermeasures when new health threats emerge.

Notes to editors

CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations. Its mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats so they can be accessible to all people in need. CEPI has supported the development of more than 70 vaccine candidates or platform technologies against multiple known high-risk pathogens or a future Disease X. Central to CEPI's pandemic-beating plan is the '100 Days Mission' to compress the time taken to develop safe, effective and accessible vaccines against new threats to just 100 days. Learn more at CEPI.net.  

About Samsung Biologics 

Samsung Biologics (KRX: 207940.KS) is a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), offering end-to-end integrated services that range from late discovery to commercial manufacturing.

With a combined biomanufacturing capacity of 785,000 liters across Bio Campus I and II, and 60,000 liters from the planned acquisition of a manufacturing facility in Rockville, Maryland, U.S. upon deal closure at the end of Q1 2026, Samsung Biologics leverages cutting-edge technologies and expertise to advance diverse modalities, including multispecific antibodies, fusion proteins, antibody-drug conjugates, and mRNA therapeutics.

By implementing the ExellenS™ framework across its manufacturing network with standardized designs, unified processes, and advanced digitalization, Samsung Biologics ensures plant equivalency and speed for manufacturing continuity.

Samsung Biologics' global manufacturing and commercial network spans Korea, the U.S., and Japan. Samsung Biologics America supports clients based in the U.S. and Europe, while its Tokyo sales office serves the APAC region.

Samsung Biologics continues to invest in new capabilities to maximize operational and quality excellence, ensuring flexibility and agility for clients. The company is committed to the on-time, in-full delivery of safe, high-quality biomedicines, as well as to making sustainable business decisions for the betterment of society and global health.

For more information, visit https://samsungbiologics.com/

Media contacts

CEPI
E: press@cepi.net
P: +44 7387 055214

Samsung Biologics  
Claire Kim, Senior Director cair.kim@samsung.com

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CEPI and Samsung Biologics collaborate to strengthen outbreak-ready vaccine production and global access

CEPI and Samsung Biologics collaborate to strengthen outbreak-ready vaccine production and global access

HANGZHOU, China, April 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A team led by principal investigators Bobo Dang and Ting Zhou at Westlake University/Westlake Laboratory reported in Science a high-throughput platform for engineering fast-acting covalent protein therapeutics. Their work, titled "A high-throughput selection system for fast-acting covalent protein drugs," opens new avenues for next-generation biologics.

Covalent small-molecule drugs have shown great success in cancer therapy by forming irreversible bonds with their targets. This has inspired efforts to extend covalent strategies to protein therapeutics, especially engineered miniproteins. However, their development is limited by a kinetic mismatch: Miniproteins are rapidly cleared in vivo, whereas covalent bond formation is typically slow. In addition, high-throughput platforms for systematically optimizing covalent protein reactivity have been lacking.

To address this challenge, the researchers proposed that precise spatial positioning of chemical warheads within protein scaffolds could enable molecular preorganization, thereby accelerating covalent bond formation without increasing intrinsic reactivity (Fig. 1).

Based on this concept, the team developed a high-throughput platform that combines yeast surface display with chemoselective protein modification to screen diverse crosslinkers and millions of protein variants. By optimizing warhead placement and the local chemical environment, the platform enables rapid and irreversible target engagement.

Using this platform, the researchers developed a covalent antagonist targeting PD-L1, termed IB101. Structural analysis revealed that IB101 forms a defined binding pocket that precisely positions the warhead in a reactive conformation, greatly accelerating covalent bond formation. Functionally, IB101 effectively blocks the PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint pathway and demonstrates strong antitumor activity in mouse models. Notably, despite its short in vivo half-life, IB101 achieves durable target engagement and tumor suppression, outperforming conventional antibody-based therapies under comparable conditions.

The platform was further applied to cytokine engineering, leading to the development of a covalent IL-18 variant, IB201. This engineered cytokine rapidly forms a covalent interaction with its receptor, enhancing signaling strength and duration. In vivo studies showed that IB201 induces potent antitumor immune responses without detectable systemic toxicity. These results highlight the potential of covalent engineering to improve the efficacy and safety of cytokine-based therapies.

Beyond immunotherapy targets, the platform was also applied to develop a covalent inhibitor targeting the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2. This molecule achieves durable viral neutralization, demonstrating the versatility of the approach across different therapeutic modalities.

This study establishes a general strategy for engineering fast-acting covalent protein therapeutics. By enabling covalent bond formation on timescales compatible with rapid in vivo clearance, the platform overcomes a fundamental limitation in the field.

These findings provide a new framework for designing biologics with both rapid kinetics and sustained target engagement, with broad implications for cancer immunotherapy, antiviral therapy, and beyond.

Media Contact: 

Chi Zhang
media@westlake.edu.cn 
+86-15659837873

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Fast-Acting Covalent Protein Drugs From a New High-Throughput Platform