US Gov't, Emergent Approve $628 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Contract

A huge amount of cash has been allocated by the US government to help formulate a new COVID-19 drug and improve the production of such vaccines to quell the disease. Now, health authorities will hire the services of a Maryland CDMO to rapidly bring production up to speed in order to increase the development of its chosen vaccine candidates.

Emergent BioSolutions has secured a $628 million contract with the US government to boost the production of COVID-19 drug candidates by next year, the CDMO on Monday disclosed.

Under the contract, by 2021, Emergent will provide manufacturing assistance for vaccine candidates, the Gaithersburg firm stated on Monday. The portion of the contract, estimated at about $542.7 million, provides room to enhance more programs at Emergent's three laboratories in Rockville, and Bayview and Camden in Baltimore.

As biotech companies scramble to come up with vaccines, boost testing, and disease therapies, the US government is looking to secure production capacity under its Operation Warp Speed program made public last month to fast track the development of vaccines.

Together, BARDA and Emergent aim to expand on a collaboration with the Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) in 2012, as a way to increase the development of leading candidates for COVID-19 vaccines by 2021.

One of the country's three CIADM facilities has been operated by Baltimore Bayview facility in Emergent, which will now be the first to be tapped to guide Operation Warp Speed. Emergent would also provide the government with contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services as part of those efforts.

The Maryland-headquartered CDMO recently finalized a manufacturing agreement with Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, and Vaxart to make their COVID-19 drug candidates at scale, but the BARDA deal would take precedent if other drug candidates beat those three firms to the punch.

The deal builds upon a public-private collaboration between HHS and Emergent in 2012, a $220 million contract with an eight-year base timeframe and several option years. It stood up Emergent's facility in Bayview for rapid vaccine production in the face of a public health crisis. The facility can now make tens of millions of vaccine doses per year, the firm disclosed.

The contract also includes an $85.5 million investment to boost Emergent's viral and non-viral vaccine manufacturing capability. So far, BARDA has shelled out over $2 billion in COVID-19 drugs and supported more than 30 programs, including treatments and diagnostics.

The US government's Emergent partnership is just the most recent of the important deals that BARDA has entered into in the past few weeks to make COVD-19 potential vaccines.