On Mar. 18, 2020, Emergent BioSolutions announced an agreement with Vaxart, whereby Emergent has agreed to utilize its molecule-to-market contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services to develop and manufacture Vaxart’s experimental oral vaccine candidate for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Development services were begun immediately, and upon Vaxart’s election, Emergent agreeed to produce clinical material expected to enable Vaxart to initiate a Phase 1 clinical study anticipated early in the second half of 2020. Vaxart’s oral recombinant vaccine candidate is based on its proprietary VAAST™ platform.

Under the terms of the agreement, Emergent will provide development services out of its Gaithersburg, Md. location and manufacture drug substance at its Bayview facility in Baltimore, Md., designated a Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Emergent’s Bayview CIADM is the same facility used to manufacture drug substance for the company’s recently announced Novavax collaboration. The facility has the capacity to produce tens to hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine on an annual basis, based upon the platform technology being leveraged. Additionally, it has the unique capability of producing at clinical scale, to get vaccine candidates quickly into the clinic, and in parallel, scaling up to produce commercial volumes to meet customer demand.