Emergent BioSolutions Statement on Johnson & Johnson’s Collaboration with Merck
GAITHERSBURG, Md. March 03, 2021 – Emergent BioSolutions welcomes the addition of Merck & Co’s capabilities to the fight against COVID-19, a move that will add to existing supply and help meet global vaccine needs. Since April 2020, Emergent, under the terms of its five-year commercial supply agreement with the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, has served as a contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) collaborator to provide global drug substance manufacturing of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Emergent is committed to fulfilling its role by providing drug substance to support Johnson & Johnson’s goal of 100 million doses by June 2021 and 1 billion doses by the end of 2021 while ensuring safety and quality are maintained.
Emergent has been producing drug substance for Janssen at large scale at Emergent’s Baltimore Bayview facility. Drug substance is the active pharmaceutical ingredient for the vaccine, which is then shipped to other supply chain collaborators to be filled and finished in vials before distribution.
“We’re all in this together. In the fight against COVID-19 there are no competitors, only allies. Merck will be a great collaborator and we’re excited to work with them to further increase the supply of this vaccine for patients globally,” said Robert G. Kramer, President & CEO of Emergent BioSolutions. “Through public and private investment, Emergent has built a production infrastructure capable of producing more than a billion vaccine doses annually. We look forward to continuing our work with the U.S. government and all our collaborators to use that capacity in support of the fight against COVID-19.”
Biologic viral vaccine manufacturing is a complex process. All of the manufacturing technology, processes, and production equipment had to be developed and put in place concurrently with the clinical development of the COVID-19 vaccine, occurring in a matter of months rather than the years it usually takes. “Parallel and rapid technology transfer to manufacture at this scale has never been done before. We are proud to have successfully achieved what is typically a multiple year process within months,” added Kramer. “This is what the power of collaboration can do.”
The large-scale manufacturing of drug substance for the Janssen vaccine is being 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 during public health emergencies as part of its leading CDMO offering. Emergent’s CIADM is a result of a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and reinforces its more than two decades of partnering with the U.S. government.
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