Johnson & Johnson has announced a $135M deal with Emergent BioSolutions to use its manufacturing facilities to potentially make more than 1 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine the drugmaker is testing.
The drugmaker's lead vaccine candidate for COVID-19, which is scheduled to start Phase 1 trials in September, leverages proven AdVac and PER.C6 technologies from its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceutical.
Under the agreement, Emergent will provide drug substance manufacturing services with its molecule-to-market CDMO offering, supported by investments from J&J beginning in 2020, and will reserve certain large-scale manufacturing capacity to pave the way for commercial manufacturing of Janssen’s vaccine beginning in 2021.
Large-scale manufacturing of drug substance for the vaccine candidate will be done at Emergent’s Baltimore Bayview facility, a Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) designed for rapid manufacturing of vaccines and treatments in large quantities during public health emergencies. Emergent’s CIADM is a result of a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Read the press release