Emergent Inks Expanded Vaccine Manufacturing Contract With AstraZeneca

Maryland-based Emergent BioSolutions has secured a $174 million contract with AstraZeneca (AZ) for large-scale manufacturing of drug substances for the UK company’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The new agreement expands upon an $87 million contract the companies signed in June. Under the expanded deal, Emergent will provide contract development and manufacturing services at its Baltimore Bayview facility for the commercial supply of the vaccine.

The company said it will use manufacturing capacity at the facility reserved by HHS’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) under Operation Warp Speed to fulfill its new obligations. The facility “has the capacity to produce tens to hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine on an annual basis,” Emergent said.

The vaccine manufacturing deal is the second between the two companies, bringing AZ’s total commitment with Emergent to $261 million (DID, June 15).

Also in June, Emergent received a $628 million contract from BARDA to rapidly produce COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the U.S. (DID, June 2).

AZ’s vaccine candidate, which it has licensed from the University of Oxford, was recently shown to produce a strong immune response in patients. It is currently in phase 3 testing in the UK, Brazil and South Africa, and phase 3 trials in the U.S. are anticipated to begin this summer (DID, July 21). — James Miessler