(Celltrion)
(Celltrion)

Celltrion said Tuesday it has signed a 294.9 billion won ($198 million) contract manufacturing agreement with an undisclosed global pharmaceutical company to supply drug substance.

The three-year deal runs from 2027 to 2029 and includes an option to expand to 375.4 billion won upon mutual agreement.

The contract underscores Celltrion’s accelerating push into the global contract development and manufacturing organization market. Earlier this year, the company signed a 678.7 billion won CMO deal with Eli Lilly, lifting its cumulative order backlog past 1 trillion won within the first quarter.

To support growing demand from global pharmaceutical clients, Celltrion is strengthening its sales and project management capabilities through its subsidiary Celltrion BioSolutions, while streamlining operations across its CMO business.

The company is positioning itself with technology-driven services, including its “formulation conversion CMO,” which leverages proprietary subcutaneous drug delivery technologies developed for products such as Remsima SC (marketed as Zymfentra in the US) and Herzuma SC.

Rising demand for biologics manufacturing is also drawing attention to Celltrion’s production capabilities. The company operates a combined manufacturing capacity of 316,000 liters across facilities in Songdo in Incheon, and Branchburg, New Jersey.

As global sales of its own products grow, Celltrion plans to allocate a larger share of capacity to in-house production, while also preparing to expand facilities to meet increasing CDMO demand.

“This large-scale agreement highlights our growing recognition in the global market,” a Celltrion official said. “We plan to continue expanding our manufacturing capacity to support both our proprietary pipeline and the rising demand from global partners.”


stlee0329@heraldcorp.com