Samsung Biologics will be producing COVID-19 drugs for a contract worth $360 million from a San Francisco-based company called Vir Biotechnology. The manufacturing of drugs is expected to begin from October at the earliest.
Vir Biotechnology, a Nasdaq-listed company has been working on possible treatments for COVID-19. It is yet to conduct experimental tests for treatments as well as vaccines on humans, which might take three to five months. The company’s drugs are based on monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and they are calling it ‘SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody’.
For large-scale production of the company’s finalized drug, Samsung Biologics has successfully won the contract worth $360 million for now. The agreement for the same is expected to be finalized by May. It is worth noting that this is the largest contract for the firm ever since it has gone public and it accounts for 63% of the total revenue reported by the company last year.
The manufacturing of drugs could start from October, however, the commercial batches will be possibly produced from early 2021 at Samsung Biologics’ plant in Songdo, located 30 kilometers southwest of Seoul in South Korea.
According to officials and drug experts, antibody drugs like this could be initially used to help people at the frontline such as health workers from getting infected by treating people with COVID-19.
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(Source)
