J&J Makes Emergent BioSolutions Manufacturing Partner for Production of COVID-19 Lead Vaccine Candidate

Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ, USA) has entered into an agreement with Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (Gaithersburg, MD, USA) whereby Emergent will deploy its contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services to support the manufacturing of Johnson & Johnson’s lead vaccine candidate for COVID-19 that leverages the AdVac and PER.C6 technologies from the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

Under the agreement, Emergent will provide drug substance manufacturing services with its molecule-to-market CDMO offering, supported by investments from Johnson & Johnson beginning in 2020, and will reserve certain large-scale manufacturing capacity to pave the way for commercial manufacturing of Janssen’s adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccine beginning in 2021. To support Johnson & Johnson’s goal of supplying one billion doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, a long-term commercial manufacturing agreement is under negotiation for large-scale drug substance manufacturing anticipated to begin in 2021.


Large-scale manufacturing of drug substance for Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate will be done at Emergent’s Baltimore Bayview facility, a Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) designed for rapid manufacturing of vaccines and treatments in large quantities during public health emergencies. Emergent’s CIADM is a result of a public-private partnership with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Emergent’s Bayview facility has unique capabilities across four independent suites to produce at clinical scale to get candidates rapidly into the clinic, while at the same time scaling up to enable large-scale manufacturing to up to 4000L to prepare for production of commercial volumes to meet customer demand. The CIADM has the capacity to produce tens to hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine on an annual basis, based upon the platform technology being used.

Additionally, Emergent had earlier entered into a formal partnership with the US government to expedite development of a plasma-derived therapy for patients with COVID-19. Emergent has received USD 14.5 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the HHS, in support of its COVID-HIG program, one of two hyperimmune development programs announced by Emergent in March. COVID-HIG is a candidate human hyperimmune product being developed as a potential treatment for COVID-19 in severe hospitalized patients and high-risk, acute symptomatic patients to prevent progression to severe symptoms. COVID-HIG will be manufactured using plasma donations from people who have recovered from COVID-19 with antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.

“When mission-driven organizations combine talents and capabilities, potential solutions to serious issues like COVID-19 become more within reach to benefit patients. We are proud of our collaboration with Johnson & Johnson and are equally committed to our longstanding relationship with the US government,” said Robert G. Kramer Sr., president and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “At a time like this, we all need to be working together to achieve maximum results for public health. Emergent is committed to our mission – to protect and enhance life – by advancing our own therapies and helping partner companies advance their programs as well.”

“We share with our partners the same urgency to combat COVID-19 and will leverage our talents, capabilities, and capacities up to 300 million doses to advance this much-needed vaccine candidate and ensure ongoing commercial supply through our CDMO services,” said Syed T. Husain, senior vice president and CDMO business unit head at Emergent.

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Emergent BioSolutions Inc.