On Jun. 24, 2020, Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services, an India-based specialist provider of pharmaceutical and vaccine development services, announced it had signed a supply agreement with AstraZeneca for sterile manufacture of the COVID-19 recombinant adenovirus vaccine known as AZD1222 for AstraZeneca sponsored clinical trials.

Under the agreement, Symbiosis will provide AstraZeneca fast-track access to sterile vaccine drug product manufacturing capacity at its facility in Stirling, Scotland for the clinical trial supply.

The agreement follows AstraZeneca’s recent announcement of a licensing agreement with the University of Oxford for the global development, manufacturing, and distribution of the AZD1222 vaccine candidate, formerly known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. The vaccine candidate is currently in clinical trials at multiple sites in the UK.

Symbiosis has several specialist manufacturing capabilities which together make the service offering of the Scotland-based company currently unique in the UK. Its service offering has enabled the company to build a global client base and employ 100 highly qualified staff from its headquarters in Stirling.

The company has a manufacturing facility which can manufacture biologic, vaccine, or small-molecule sterile bio/pharmaceutical products for biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients globally who are developing medicines to treat cancers and neurodegenerative diseases, for example. The company also has an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which services an increasing proportion of US clients.