Novartis to Assist Manufacturing Roche’s Actemra as Potential COVID-19 Therapy

Novartis has agreed to help manufacture Roche’s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Actemra (tocilizumab) as a COVID-19 treatment — in another pact that offers the company’s manufacturing might to help produce a rival’s COVID-19 therapies or vaccines.

Under the agreement, Novartis will help produce the active pharmaceutical ingredient for Roche’s anti-inflammatory drug, which has been evaluated in several late-stage trials as a treatment for COVID-19-associated pneumonia. Production will occur at Novartis’ biologics facility in Singapore, the company said.

Novartis previously agreed to help CureVac produce hundreds of millions of doses of the German drugmaker’s COVID-19 vaccine, CVnCoV, from its plant in Kundl, Austria. And, in January, the company signed an initial agreement with BioNTech to provide manufacturing capacity for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at its site in Stein, Switzerland.