Quintiles and Samsung to form biopharmaceutical joint venture

Quintiles is to form a new joint venture company with Samsung as part of the electronics company's efforts to expand into the biopharmaceutical sector.

The contract research organisation will invest $30 million (18.49 million pounds) in the venture, representing a ten percent stake, with the new company set to provide biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing services.

This will encompass the construction of a new facility in South Korea that will utilise an 8,000-gallon mammalian cell culture bioreactor to produce biopharmaceutical products for international distribution.

Samsung intends to continue its expansion into the sector in the coming years by commercialising biosimilar treatments by 2016.

Paul Casey, vice-president and head of Asia corporate development for Quintiles, said the deal "shows we are committed to developing non-traditional alliances in order to help our customers navigate risks and seize opportunities in the complex industry landscape and ultimately help patients".

Earlier this month, the company was named by Training magazine as one of the top 125 businesses in the world in terms of its workforce development initiatives.