ST Pharm Secures Major Deal to Supply Gilead Sciences Amid Biosecurity Shifts

A deal has been inked by ST Pharm, a Korean manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), to supply Gilead Sciences, a multinational pharmaceutical business with annual sales surpassing 1 trillion won ($748.9 million) worldwide. Due to the effects of the US Biosecure Act, an alternate supplier was selected for the drug's components, which were previously acquired from China. The firm anticipates starting to supply manufacturing materials in 2025, and if further biosecurity regulations are approved, there may be room for growth in supply volumes. When a multinational pharmaceutical firm inspected ST Pharm at the end of this year, the company first expected to be listed as a supplier.

It does, however, think that the Biosecure Act's higher chance of passing during the U.S. House of Representatives' September full session is why it was chosen sooner than anticipated.

The agreement probably relates to the delivery of chemicals for Gilead Sciences' best-selling HIV drug, Biktarvy. Kwon Hae-soon, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities, estimated that ST Pharm's yearly contribution to the manufacture of Biktarvy might begin at several billion won and increase to tens of billions of won in the future. Prior to this, ST Pharm and Gilead worked together to win a 151.9 billion deal in 2016 to supply APIs for Sovaldi. When it was introduced in 2018, Biktarvy's exceptional tolerability and efficacy caused it to soon dominate the HIV treatment market.