Skip to main content

Novartis pitches in to help produce Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine



Only a day after Novartis said it was looking at offering its manufacturing network to the global COVID-19 fight, the company is joining forces with Pfizer and BioNTech to help produce mRNA vaccines. It's the latest example of an unlikely Big Pharma partnership spurred by the urgent need to defeat the pandemic.

Novartis inked an initial agreement with BioNTech to allow the mRNA biotech use of Novartis' facility in Stein, Switzerland. The production will start in the second quarter, and the partners expect dose deliveries to begin in the third quarter.

The Pfizer/BioNTech shot is one of only a few that have been approved in countries around the world, and in the early stages of the rollout, demand has greatly outstripped supply. Pfizer and BioNTech have been working to scale up their manufacturing network to deliver 2 billion doses this year, but the effort led to a temporary supply disruption in Europe earlier this month.

Under the Novartis pact, the Swiss drugmaker will receive bulk mRNA active ingredient from BioNTech and fill it into vials. The company will then ship those vials back to BioNTech for global distribution.

As the companies gear up for the work, Novartis is also in "advanced discussions" with multiple other companies involved in COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics.

“Novartis has been mobilizing on multiple fronts to support the global pandemic response,” Novartis Technical Operations head Steffen Lang said in a statement, adding, “We expect this to be the first of a number of such agreements.”

For the Pfizer/BioNTech team, it's their second manufacturing tie-up with a big pharma this week. Early in the week, Sanofi said it would produce 100 million shots of the mRNA vaccine for delivery in 2021. 


Amid the pandemic, drug companies that are typically rivals have joined forces to collaborate on research or manufacturing for drugs and vaccines. Aside from Sanofi's manufacturing partnership with Pfizer and BioNTech, the company joined forces with vaccine rival GlaxoSmithKline earlier in the pandemic to advance an adjuvanted shot. The companies remain in midstage testing.

On the manufacturing side, Regeneron and Roche have teamed up to boost antibody production, as have Eli Lilly and Amgen.


https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/novartis-signs-up-to-help-produce-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can We Make A Vaccine Against Smoking?

  This segment sounds good but we need to be careful here or we end up where we started in 2021 vaccines becoming political. 
Post a Comment
Read more

L.A. County reports 1st case of more contagious coronavirus variant as region surpasses 1M infections Nexstar News

  Los Angeles County confirmed its first case of the new, more contagious coronavirus strain first reported in the United Kingdom, health officials said Saturday. Authorities also announced that the region has surpassed 1 million coronavirus cases. A man who recently spent time in L.A. County was found to have the virus variant. He has since traveled to Oregon and is currently isolating there. Although this is the first confirmed case of the U.K. variant in the county, public health officials believe that the strain is already spreading in the community.  “The presence of the U.K. variant in Los Angeles County is troubling, as our healthcare system is already severely strained with more than 7,500 people currently hospitalized,” Barbara Ferrer, L.A. County public health director, said in a news release Saturday. “Our community is bearing the brunt of the winter surge, experiencing huge numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, five-times what we experienced over the summe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Texas governor bans vaccine passports from being required in state ABC News

  Thats Right States like Texas and Florida got the Vaccine Passport Conspiracy from Del Bigtree.  https://abc7.com/politics/texas-governor-bans-vaccine-passport-requirement-in-state/10491161/ AUSTIN, Texas -- Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Tuesday morning prohibiting state agencies or political subdivisions in Texas from creating a "vaccine passport" requirement. Conversation has grown around  vaccine passports recently as an option that can be used for travel or even eating out . They are typically described as an app with a code that verifies if someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19. They're already in use in Israel, and in development in parts of Europe. But Abbott shut that down as an option in the Lone Star State with Executive Order No. GA - 35 also prohibiting "organizations receiving public funds from requiring consumers to provide documentation of vaccine status in order to receive any service or enter any place....
Post a Comment
Read more