NSP NEWS

(Seoul=NSP News Agency) danbi kim Journalist = Samsung Biologics and Boston-based biotech firm GreenLight Biosciences have teamed up to help make COVID-19 vaccines more accessible to people in Africa.

Under a contract manufacturing deal signed earlier in the day, the company signed a contract manufacturing (CMO) partnership for the drug substance (DS) candidate for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine being developed by Greenlight Bioscience.

Samsung Biologics is adding new production facilities to its plant in Songdo, Incheon, with the aim of getting manufacturing approval from cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practice) by the first half of next year.

As part of the deal, the two companies also agreed to beef up research and manufacturing efforts to distribute more COVID-19 vaccines for underdeveloped countries.

GreenLight Biosciences plans to finalize a separate partnership deal with a local partner in Africa and to start the phase 1 trials for clinical use as early as from the first quarter of next year.