Three new public-private partnerships created with a $400 million investment from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will develop medicines and vaccines and train biopharmaceutical workers to respond to health emergencies arising from bioterrorist attacks an pandemics.
Called Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, these centers will be consortiums of academic institutions, small biotech firms and large pharmaceutical companies located in Maryland, North Carolina and Texas.
The facilities, which will be new or retrofitted existing structures, will “incorporate flexible, innovative manufacturing platforms that can be used to manufacture more than one product. The facilities will use modern cell- and recombinant-based vaccine technologies that have the potential to produce vaccines for not only pandemic influenza but also other threats more quickly and in a more affordable way,” according to an HHS statement. The private partners will provide about 35 percent of the start up costs total costs and HHS will cover the rest.
The three centers are:
Emergent Manufacturing Operations Baltimore LLC, Michigan State University, Kettering University of Flint, Mich., and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. This is a $163 million eight-year contract.
Novartis, North Carolina State University and Duke University. This is a $60 million four-year contract.
Texas A&M University System, GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines of Marietta, Pa.; Lonza of Houston, Texas, and Kalon Biotherapeutics of College Station, Texas. This is a $176 million contract.
