Korea's Samsung Biologics collaborates with CEPI to strengthen outbreak-ready vaccine production
February 4, 2026 | Wednesday | News
CEPI will work with Samsung Biologics to establish a scalable, rapid manufacturing process for recombinant-protein vaccines
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Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Samsung Biologics, a South Korea-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), have 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 $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.
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.
