COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M University's Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) has been chosen by the Trump Administration to mass produce a COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Novavax, Inc.
Under Operation Warp Speed, the high-tech bio-manufacturing center owned by FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologieshas (FDB), has been reserved for vaccine production through the end of 2021.
Novavax has been awarded $1.6 billion by the federal government to complete their Phase 3 clinical trial of their COVID-19 vaccine. They will use the money to establish large-scale manufacturing, and deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine. A&M's CIADM facility will receive around $265 million of the funds for expansion and new equipment to aid in manufacturing the vaccine.
“The CIADM is ready to save lives and help protect the country,” said John Sharp, Chancellor of The Texas A&M University System in a press release. “This whole project is a triple win. It’s a win for the A&M System. It’s a win for FDB. It’s a win for the nation.”
The FDB plant in North Carolina is already producing the Novavax vaccine candidate for its clinical trials, and with the Federal Drug Administration's approval, FDB hopes to transfer the manufacturing process to College Station for bulk production of the vaccine starting in early 2021.
The CIADM at Texas A&M was developed in the U.S. in response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic.
“This validates why the CIADM program was established,” said Dr. W. Jay Treat, Texas A&M’s Chief Manufacturing Officer for the CIADM in a press release. “We have state-of-the-art facilities ready to make millions doses of vaccines to meet the critical needs of our citizens.”