Samsung Biologics’ partner Immunomedics having its drug approved by the US Food and Drug Adminsitration has led to an increase in contract volume, according to the Korean contract developer on Thursday.

Immunomedics, a biotech firm based in New Jersey, had its sacituzumab govitecan drug approved as an antibody-drug conjugate for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

The company has thus increased the amount of drugs to be contract-manufactured by Samsung Biologics from the previous $30 million to $164 million, with a contract termination date set for end-2025.

Samsung Biologics marked the case as the first of its kind that demonstrates its existing deals can balloon depending on client firms’ drug development success.

In another report Thursday, another of Samsung Biologics’ contract development partners, ImmuneOncia, said its clinical trial design for immune checkpoint inhibitor IMC-002 passed the US Food and Drug Administration’s review.

The company will initiate phase 1 clinical trials in the US in approximately a couple of months.

ImmuneOncia’s IMC-002 is an immune checkpoint inhibitor for macrophage, which inhibits cancer cells from dodging the body’s immune response.

ImmuneOncia CEO Song Yun-jeong said Samsung Biologics’ contract development support, encompassing cell line development to drug sample manufacturing for animal and clinical trials and paperwork submission, had helped the company pass the FDA’s review in a “remarkably short period” of just one month.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)