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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Prosecutors in South Korea have broadened an investigation into alleged fraud at Samsung BioLogics, which the company has disputed. As a part of this investigation, a Samsung executive was arrested overnight on allegations of ordering the destruction of evidence related to suspecting accounting fraud at a Samsung affiliate.

The executive is accused of ordering the destruction and manipulation of accounting data and other internal documents of Samsung BioLogics and Samsung Bioepis in 2018. The development was first reported by South Korea-based news agency Yonhap.

As a part of this investigation, around eight employees of Samsung and its affiliates have now been arrested. This comes at a time when South Korean prosecutors broaden an investigation into whether top executives covered up evidence linked to alleged accounting fraud in 2015 at the company’s biopharmaceutical unit.

Last month, prosecutors raided a Samsung BioLogics factory and recovered a cache of hidden electronic devices. The prosecutors believe that the newly found electronic devices are linked to the case.

As per the regulators, Samsung BioLogics inflated the value of affiliate Samsung Bioepis by $3.9 billion. Critics have said the move artificially increased the value of parent Cheil Industries to enable an $8 billion merger with Samsung C&T, which held a key stake in Samsung Electronics.

At that time, Lee Jae-Yong, heir to the Samsung group, was a large shareholder in Cheil with a 23 percent stake but he did not own C&T shares and his direct stockholding of Samsung Electronics was less than 1 percent.

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Prosecutors said that Ahn and Lee convened the May 5 meeting after the Financial Supervisory Service notified Samsung BioLogics and Samsung Bioepis of their suspected window dressing. They claim that since then, they masterminded the entire process of evidence destruction and manipulation at the two biotech companies.

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