Catalent to manufacture J&J's lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Collaboration includes joint investment and tech transfer to prepare for rapid scale-up and segregated cGMP commercial manufacturing capacity.

The collaboration commits joint investment to accelerate the rapid scale-up of segregated manufacturing capacity over the coming months to support dedicated production of J&J’s investigational vaccine candidate.

Catalent plans to hire approximately 300 additional employees at the site for this program starting in July 2020 to meet operational readiness and 24x7 manufacturing schedules by January 2021.

“Catalent is proud to collaborate with J&J in its efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and save lives,” said John Chiminski, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Catalent. “Both organizations have committed to ambitious goals and are executing innovative strategies to meet the forecasted demand on an unprecedented timeline. We value the trust that J&J has placed in us regarding this important, time-sensitive program and will apply our extensive experience in quickly scaling up manufacturing operations for late-stage and commercial products.”