Emergent BioSolutions to Manufacture Drug Substance for J&J’s COVID-19 Vaccine

Emergent BioSolutions has secured a five-year agreement with Johnson and Johnson to manufacture drug substances for J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The deal is valued at approximately $480 million for the first two years. The value for the remaining three years will be finalized in 2021, Emergent said.

The Maryland-based company will begin manufacturing in 2021 at its Baltimore Bayview facility and will expand capacity annually beginning in 2023. The deal is a part of a collaboration the companies signed in April to scale up manufacturing of J&J’s vaccine Ad26.COV2-S (DID, April 24).

The J&J vaccine is one of the top three vaccines candidates selected for accelerated development by the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed. The company expects to begin phase 1/2a trials of the vaccine candidate this month (DID, June 11).

Emergent signed an $87 million contract with AstraZeneca last month to produce large quantities of drug substances for its vaccine candidate AZD1222 (DID, June 15). — Jordan Williams