Merck to Lend Manufacturing Power for Johnson & Johnson’s Vaccine

With Johnson & Johnson struggling to meet its COVID-19 vaccine supply commitments for the U.S., pharma titan Merck will provide its support to ramp up manufacturing of the one-shot vaccine, the Biden administration said Tuesday.

Calling the collaboration between the two drug powerhouses and rivals “a historic manufacturing partnership,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the federal government will support the companies in a number of ways, including invoking the Defense Production Act to help adequately equip two Merck plants for the task. The administration will also instruct the Department of Defense to lend J&J logistical support on a daily basis, she said.

The White House did not go into details on the specifics of the partnership, such as how many shots Merck will help to produce or in what timeframe it will deliver on its new obligations, but Psaki said that the drugmaker will produce the drug substance for the J&J vaccine and help to expand fill-finish capacity.

Asked if the government was in discussions with other manufacturers to potentially facilitate additional production collaborations on the J&J, Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, Psaki said that she was not aware of anything at the moment, noting the manufacturing process for the J&J shot enabled Merck, who has a long history of producing vaccines, to lend a hand.

“This was a step taken because the J&J vaccine is a more traditional vaccine, and Merck’s experience manufacturing other vaccines will allow it to scale and effectively produce the J&J vaccine,” she explained. “The manufacturing process for Pfizer and Moderna does not allow for smooth transfer from one manufacturer to another in the same capacity.”

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that J&J’s vaccine manufacturing sites will now begin to operate nonstop with aid from the government. According to the president, the country will have enough COVID-19 vaccines to vaccinate every adult American by the end of May.

Merck, a company with a long, successful background in vaccines, participated in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine but, surprisingly, chose to drop its two candidates after finding they generated lackluster immune responses. Following its decision, the company said it would focus on two investigational COVID-19 treatments, one an antiviral and the other a recombinant fusion protein (DID, Jan. 26).

The press secretary also announced an increased amount of weekly vaccine dose allocations to states, territories and tribes, with provisions increasing from 14.5 million to 15.2 million doses per week. States will additionally receive 2.8 million J&J vaccine doses this week, she added.

Richard Nettles, vice president of U.S. medical affairs at J&J subsidiary Janssen, has contended that the complexity of its vaccine manufacturing process has contributed to its delays in delivering doses on time. Although the company agreed to deliver 12 million doses by the end of February, it had just under 4 million shots ready to go following the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization earlier this week.

Despite this, J&J has assured the U.S. that it will deliver 20 million doses by the end of the month and will meet its end of June commitment of 100 million doses. The company has said it anticipates delivering 1 billion doses globally by the end of the year as it works to expand production capabilities. — James Miessler