Johnson & Johnson Expands Manufacturing of Lead COVID-19 Vaccine

April 28, 2020 - Johnson & Johnson (J&J) recently announced a collaboration between Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Emergent BioSolutions to support the manufacturing of its lead investigational COVID-19 vaccine candidate. 

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The partnership between Janssen Pharmaceuticals, part of Johnson & Johnson, and Emergent BioSolutions, is the first series of prospective global collaboration agreements intended to significantly boost the development of the promising vaccine and distribute it globally.

“We have set a high bar. Johnson & Johnson has committed to rapidly produce and supply more than one billion doses of a safe and effective vaccine globally. Our collaboration with Emergent is proof that we are moving quickly to deliver on that promise,” Paul Stoffels, MD, vice chairman of the executive committee and chief scientific officer, Johnson & Johnson, said in the announcement.

Johnson & Johnson first began efforts to research potential vaccine candidates in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), part of Harvard Medical School, when the COVID-19 sequence became available. Since then, various vaccine candidates have been tested. 

Janssen and BIDMC went through preclinical testing for various vaccine prospects with the intent to identify possible treatments by the end March. Janssen’s goal is to initiate a Phase 1 clinical study of a potential vaccine by the end of the year.

Most recently, Johnson & Johnson identified a lead coronavirus vaccine candidate and expected to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial by September, the company announced at the end of March.

The potential vaccine was discovered from constructs the company had been working on since January through the expansion of its existing partnership between its Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of HHS.

The vaccine selection also emerged from the scaling of the Company’s manufacturing capacity with the goal of providing a global supply of more than one billion doses of a vaccine. The first batches of the vaccine could be available for severe patients in early 2021.

The announcement noted that Johnson & Johnson and BARDA will commit more than $1 billion in funding for vaccine research, development, and clinical testing.

Alex Gorsky, chairman and chief executive officer at Johnson & Johnson, said that Johnson & Johnson is committed to ensuring the COVID-19 vaccine is available and affordable globally as quickly as possible.

Under the terms of the most recent collaboration, Johnson & Johnson will expand drug substance capacity. Emergent will provide drug substance manufacturing services with its molecule-to-market CDMO, starting this year, the announcement highlighted.

Emergent will also reserve operations capacity to support commercial manufacturing of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate by leveraging Janssen’s AdVac and PER.C6 technologies beginning next year.

“For more than 20 years, Johnson & Johnson has invested billions of dollars in antivirals and vaccine capabilities. The COVID-19 vaccine program leverages Janssen’s proven AdVac and PER.C6 technologies that provide the ability to rapidly develop new vaccine candidates and upscale production of the optimal vaccine candidate,” the company stated.

“The same technology was used to develop and manufacture the Company’s investigational Ebola vaccine and construct our RSV and HIV vaccine candidates, which are in Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical development stages.”

The company has begun clinical trial preparations at its facility in Leiden, the Netherlands, which is expected to launch in September. Johnson & Johnson will begin production at risk and will bring an affordable vaccine to the public on a not-for-profit basis for emergency pandemic use.

Johnson & Johnson encourages anyone looking for more information on its multi-pronged approach to combating the pandemic to visit www.jnj.com/coronavirus.