Emergent BioSolutions signs 5-year manufacturing agreement for J&J’s lead COVID-19 vaccine candidate

The CDMO produce drug substance at large scale for commercial manufacturing with the first 2 years valued at approximately $480 million.

The company will provide contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services to produce drug substance at large scale over 5 years, valued at approximately $480 million for the first 2 years.

Emergent will begin providing large-scale drug substance manufacturing for J&J’s adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccine in 2021. For the subsequent years beginning 2023, Emergent will provide a flexible capacity deployment model to support additional drug substance batches annually.

This long-term large-scale manufacturing agreement follows and is incremental to the contract announced in April for drug substance manufacturing technology transfer services and for reserving certain large-scale manufacturing capacity to pave the way for commercial drug substance manufacturing for the COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Activities will be performed at Emergent’s Baltimore Bayview facility, a designated Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), designed for rapid manufacturing of large quantities of vaccines and treatments during public health emergencies.