J&J & Emergent BioSolutions Strike Manufacturing Deal For COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

Less than one month after Johnson & Johnson identified a lead vaccine candidate against COVID-19, the life sciences giant announced an agreement with Emergent BioSolutions to support the manufacturing needs for the potential medication.

Late Thursday, the two companies signed a deal worth about $135 million to manufacture more than one billion doses of the potential vaccine candidate. Under terms of the agreement, Maryland-based Emergent will provide drug substance manufacturing services with its molecule-to-market CDMO offering, supported by investments from Johnson & Johnson beginning in 2020, and will reserve certain large-scale manufacturing capacity to pave the way for commercial manufacturing of Janssen’s adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccine beginning in 2021. A longer-term commercial manufacturing agreement for large-scale drug substance manufacturing anticipated to begin in 2021, the company said in its announcement.

Robert G. Kramer, president and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions, touted the partnership with J&J as a potential solution to the pressing need for a vaccine against COVID-19, the pandemic that has shut down much of the world’s economies.

“At a time like this, we all need to be working together to achieve maximum results for public health. Emergent is committed to our mission – to protect and enhance life – by advancing our own therapies and helping partner companies advance their programs as well,” Kramer said in a statement.-Bio Space