The Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing facility will assist with filling bulk vaccines to speed up the delivery of monkeypox vaccinations to the US
Bavarian Nordic has signed an agreement with GRAM for fill and finish of smallpox/monkeypox vaccine. (Credit: daniskg from Pixabay)
Bavarian Nordic, a fully integrated vaccines company, has signed an agreement with Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (GRAM) for the fill and finish of Jynneos smallpox/monkeypox vaccine.
GRAM, a US-based contract manufacturer, will support the filling of already manufactured bulk vaccines to speed up the delivery of monkeypox vaccinations to the US.
The deal is expected to boost Bavarian Nordic’s manufacturing capacity for the benefit of the US and globally.
The order of 2.5 million doses of vaccine from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will be filled at GRAM invoiced under previous contracts with BARDA.
According to the firm, in total, BARDA has requested a total of 5.5 million doses for delivery in 2022 and 2023.
The production process’s tech shift to GRAM has already begun and the goal is to finish the tech transfer within three months, which will allow GRAM to begin production later this year.
Bavarian Nordic will be able to speed up the delivery of vials to the US while also making capacity available for other nations by increasing the capability of GRAM to fulfil a sizeable portion of the orders from BARDA.
The company has already implemented several measures to raise the filling capacity at its own manufacturing facility in Denmark.
Additionally, following a planned shutdown, the company’s bulk manufacturing is fully online, enabling the production of fresh bulk vaccines.
To promote vaccination accessibility worldwide, the company is concurrently looking into new collaborations to boost manufacturing capacity.
Bavarian Nordic president and CEO Paul Chaplin said: “We have been working diligently since the beginning of the monkeypox outbreak to expand our manufacturing capacity and the agreement with GRAM is an important step.
“With this agreement, we will significantly expand our manufacturing capabilities into the United States allowing Bavarian Nordic to meet the growing worldwide demand.”