Clear The Outsourcing Runway: The 8 Largest Deals In The Past Year
By Jeffrey S. Buguliskis, PhD, Deputy Chief Editor, Outsourced Pharma
Airports tell a story. The flux of travelers to and from specific destinations can signal global trends—new vacation hotspots, geopolitical turmoil, or pilgrimages to fashion capitals. The destination—and the route—offers a window into the future.
When analyzing outsourcing deals, the same principle applies. From Holly Springs, North Carolina, to Songdo, South Korea, to Cork, Ireland, the new passport stamp in biopharma isn’t a plane ticket—it’s a slot on a fill-finish line. Bioreactors are the oilfields of this decade, and sponsors are staking claims with decade-long contracts, prepaid capacity, and dedicated suites. When GLP-1 demand met U.S. onshoring and tariff anxiety, the market didn’t debate—it booked bioproduction space.
Why should you care? These deals are a form of price discovery in the public market. They reveal what real capacity costs, how long it takes to secure, and which contracting patterns actually move the queue. If you’re an emerging biotech, the message is practical: start sooner, bundle drug substance (DS) and drug product (DP) where it de-risks tech transfer, attach cash to hard slot guarantees and cycle-time service-level agreements, keep a credible second source warm, and stay flexible on geography. Read the list below of the major outsourcing deals for the past 12 months as a field guide—then reverse-engineer your own outsourcing plan from it.
From September 2024 to September 2025, and ranked by disclosed value
- Regeneron – FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies: ($3B) In April 2025, Regeneron signed a roughly $3 billion supply agreement with CDMO Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies. This multiyear deal (details undisclosed) covers fill/finish and other production of Regeneron’s large-molecule drugs and nearly doubles its U.S. output. The deal reflects a broader move by large biopharmas to “manufacture the vast majority” of complex medicines domestically to meet U.S. demand and hedge against import tariffs. [Regeneron Press Release]
- Johnson & Johnson – FUJIFILM (Holly Springs): ($2B) In Aug 2025, J&J agreed to a 10‑year, $2 billion contract with Fujifilm’s new Holly Springs, NC biologics plant. Under this long-term pact, J&J will occupy and help expand the 160,000‑sq-ft facility to boost U.S. capacity for its oncology, immunology, and other advanced medicines. The deal explicitly targets U.S. onshoring, with J&J stating that it aims to “manufacture the vast majority of its advanced medicines in the U.S.” in response to tariffs and tax credits. Notably, the 10-year term signals a trend in which sponsors are securing decade-long commitments from CDMOs to stabilize their supply. [JNJ Press Release]
- Unnamed EU Pharma – Samsung Biologics: ($1.45B) Early 2025 reports confirm that Samsung Biologics has signed a record-breaking ₩2.07 trillion (approximately $1.45 billion) biomanufacturing contract with a European pharmaceutical company. The deal (client unnamed) is Samsung’s largest ever and underscores the company’s global reach. It is likely to cover commercial biologics production over many years. This one contract alone accounted for a significant portion of Samsung’s 2025 backlog, which exceeded $8 billion by year-end. The sheer size of this agreement underscores Samsung’s ability to handle multi-billion-dollar partnerships, leveraging its massive Songdo facility and newly added capacity. [Korea JoongAng Daily]
- Unnamed U.S. Pharma – Samsung Biologics: ($1.3B) On Sept 9, 2025, Samsung disclosed a ₩1.8 trillion contract (≈$1.3 billion) with a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company. The six-year agreement (through December 2029) is Samsung’s second-largest ever deal and another sign of its U.S. inroads, despite tariff pressures. Samsung’s filings emphasize that its vast production capacity—including a fifth Korean plant online in 2024—gives it a “competitive edge strong enough to offset tariff risks.” The U.S. client’s identity remains confidential, as is common; however, Samsung noted that locking this deal substantially increased its 2025 order backlog. [BusinessKorea]
- Unnamed Asia-Based Pharma – Samsung Biologics: ($1.24B) On October 21, 2024, Samsung announced a $1.24 billion biomanufacturing deal with an unnamed Asia-based pharmaceutical company. Production is expected to run through 2037 at Samsung’s Songdo site. The company stated that this is its largest contract with any single client to date, helping to push Samsung’s total 2024 order book past $3.3 billion. The Asia deal underscores Samsung’s strategy of partnering with top global pharmaceutical firms (it now collaborates with 17 of the world’s 20 largest companies) and leveraging its growing capacity to secure major projects. [Press Release]
- Unnamed Europe-Based Pharma – Samsung Biologics: ($668M) In November 2024, Samsung announced a $668 million agreement (series of production pacts) with an unnamed European pharmaceutical customer. This deal will run through 2031 and has brought Samsung’s new 2024 contracts to over $4 billion year-to-date. Like other Samsung deals, few details were publicized, but the sheer scale – on top of concurrent U.S. and Asian contracts – highlights Samsung’s sustained winning streak. The announcement noted that after these deals, Samsung Biologics now serves 17 of the top 20 pharma companies, reflecting its scale advantage and broad service portfolio (e.g., ADC manufacturing). [PRN Press Release]
- Unnamed U.S.-Based Pharma – Samsung Biologics: ($532M) Samsung announced this April another U.S. manufacturing contract worth ₩737B (approximately $518 million). The five‑year pact (through end-2031) adds to Samsung’s North American commitments. Samsung noted this one contract was roughly 16% of its 2024 revenue, illustrating how each large deal moves the needle. Although again confidential, the deal confirmed Samsung’s near-constant expansion: its fifth plant in Songdo (180 kl bioreactors) had just come online, enabling it to serve this long-term biologics supply agreement. [Korean Biomedical Review]
- Viking Therapeutics – CordenPharma: ($150M) In March 2025, Viking (a small biotech focused on obesity and diabetes) agreed to pay approximately $150 million through 2028 to CordenPharma for manufacturing support of its dual GIP/GLP-1 agonist, VK2735. Under this multi-year deal, CordenPharma will supply “multiple metric tons” of VK2735 active ingredient and perform fill/finish for both injectable and oral forms, producing roughly 100 million injector pens and 1 billion tablets per year. The contract marks a payback on CordenPharma’s recent €900 million investment in large‑scale peptide capacity: Viking’s CEO noted Corden’s scale in peptide manufacture gave confidence to meet the expected surge in demand. This deal exemplifies the GLP‑1-driven outsourcing trend in the US biotech sector, even among smaller players. [Viking Therapeutics Press Release]
These deals are the market’s scoreboard, showing who’s moving up the order, who’s waiting, and who has locked in multi-year priority access. The patterns are plain. Sponsors that prepay, bundle DS→DP, and insist on service-level agreements with remedies get scheduled starts and fewer delays. Those waiting for “capacity to open up” watch their launch windows slip. Read each deal not as gossip but as a playbook: what term lengths actually secured slots, which geographies shortened cycle time, and how much cash it took to turn a promise into a guaranteed run.
For emerging biotechs, the takeaway is empowering. You won’t outspend Big Pharma, but you can out-sequence them: time RFPs to new lines coming online, target integrated sites to cut tech-transfer drag, structure optionable second sources so you’re never captive to one supplier, and tie dollars to release-by dates and cycle-time SLAs. The list above is more than a ranking—it’s the going price of certainty. Use it to plot your own route, book earlier, and fly a plan that gets you from promise to product without circling the airport.