Emergent Agrees With AstraZeneca To Deploy CDMO Services For COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate

(RTTNews) - Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS) has agreed to provide contract development and manufacturing services for large-scale commercial drug substance manufacturing for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222. The deal is valued at approximately $174 million through 2021. The agreement is in addition to the public-private CDMO partnership between Emergent and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) announced in June.

The vaccine candidate, AZD1222, was co-invented by the University of Oxford and its spin-out company, Vaccitech, and licensed by AstraZeneca. The vaccine candidate is currently in clinical trials.

Emergent BioSolutions will provide an update to its 2020 financial outlook incorporating expectations related to the agreement.