Samsung Biologics said Wednesday that it has agreed to develop and manufacture Israeli pharmaceutical startup KAHR Medical's immuno-oncology drug candidate DSP502. 

Under the accord, Samsung Biologics will provide a one-stop service to cover all steps required for developing a new drug. The services include developing DSP502 strain, manufacturing drug substance (DS), and submitting investigation new drug (IND).

KAHR Medical is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in fusion protein. It possesses technologies to develop multi-functional immuno-recruitment proteins that combine cancer cells and T-cells to target cancer selectively.

"Our DSP502 immunotherapy treats cancer by weakening the cancer cell's defense and activating the immune cell response with a dual binding protein," KAHR Medical CEO Yaron Pereg said. "We are glad to work with Samsung Biologics, a global CDMO leader."

Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim also said, "The integrated CDMO service will allow customers to focus solely on their specialized areas of discovering and researching new drugs."

CEO Rim added that the company would continue to contribute to human health by improving the quality of biomedicines and shortening the development period.

Samsung Biologics opened a CDO research and development center in San Francisco, Calif., in October 2020, setting the stage to bring its contract development services as a next-door CDO partner.

The company is building its fourth plant with the world's largest manufacturing capacity and will run it from next year.