Deal struck to expedite production of monkeypox vaccines in U.S.
Source: Washington Post
White House and health-industry officials on Thursday announced a deal to expedite millions of doses of monkeypox vaccines by moving some manufacturing to the United States, following criticism the Biden administration had failed to secure a large enough supply. Biden officials also sought to persuade critics by announcing that an additional 1.8 million doses of vaccine would be made available for orders on Monday — if local leaders had adopted the strategy to split each single-use vial into five smaller doses and inject it under the top layer of the skin. Under the arrangement, Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic will work with Michigan-based Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing to package 2.5 million doses of vaccine that the United States had ordered in July.
Bavarian Nordic produces Jynneos, the only vaccine against monkeypox approved by the Food and Drug Administration, while Grand Rapids Aseptic specializes in helping package pharmaceutical products. “This partnership between Bavarian Nordic and GRAM will significantly increase the capacity to fill and finish government-owned doses — for the first time in the U.S. — and allow us to deliver our current and future supply more quickly to locations nationwide,” White House monkeypox coordinator Bob Fenton said in a statement.
Officials said that work was already underway to transfer technology from Bavarian Nordic to Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing, and that manufacturing of the additional doses could begin later this year. The arrangement, which had been discussed for weeks, comes after the White House faced questions about why it had not ordered more doses or transported them from overseas, including hundreds of thousands of doses that were at Bavarian Nordic’s factory in Denmark awaiting FDA inspection in June.
“With this agreement we will significantly expand our manufacturing capabilities into the United States allowing Bavarian Nordic to meet the growing worldwide demand,” Paul Chaplin, CEO of Bavarian Nordic, said in a statement. Bloomberg News first reported the planned deal between the companies. At a press briefing earlier Thursday, Biden administration officials said they had been working with Bavarian Nordic to help increase its production capacity.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/18/monkeypox-vaccine-manufacturer-grand-river-aseptic/
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