Catalent to help Johnson & Johnson manufacture Covid-19 vaccine candidate

Drug delivery technology provider Catalent will work alongside Johnson & Johnson to help deliver the pharma giant’s lead vaccine candidate for Covid-19.

The collaboration will see Catalent’s Biologics unit work with Janssen Pharmaceutical to accelerate the availability of its manufacturing capacity and also ensure it is ready for large-scale commercial manufacturing of the company’s lead Covid-19 vaccine at its facility in Bloomington, Indiana.

Johnson & Johnson started work on a vaccine candidate for Covid-19 in January, after the genetic sequence for the virus became available. The company currently has one lead candidate and two back ups and is aiming to initiate a phase 1 clinical study in September this year. The company’s Covid-19 vaccine programme is leveraging the same technology that was used to develop and manufacture its Ebola vaccine.

Catalent plans to hire around 300 additional employees at its Bloomington site to meet operational readiness for the collaboration. The company will being preparing the site in July this year and aims to have 24/7 operating schedules by January 2021. In particular, both parties will invest to accelerate rapid scale-up of segregated manufacturing capacity on a new vial filling line at its Bloomington, Indiana biologics facility.

“Catalent is proud to collaborate with Johnson & Johnson in its efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and save lives,” said John Chiminski, chair and chief executive officer of Catalent. “Both organisations have committed to ambitious goals and are executing innovative strategies to meet the forecasted demand on an unprecedented timeline. We value the trust that Johnson & Johnson has placed in us regarding this important, time-sensitive program and will apply our extensive experience in quickly scaling up manufacturing operations for late-stage and commercial products.”