The second of two GMP manufacturing sites for the UK’s specialist vaccines manufacturing equipment has been approved by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Pharma vials
Announced by the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC), the new site means there are now two fully equipped, manufacturing sites available to make a Covid-19 vaccine candidate. Two sites are part of the UK’s response to Covid-19. They will be operating at 1000L scale and will be dedicated to manufacturing a leading Covid-19 viral vector vaccine candidate.
These two specialist sites are expected to be fully operational in October and come before the VMIC’s permanent facility opens sometime in 2021. The collaboration between VMIC and Oxford Biomedica signed in June 2020 enabled the UK to establish a rapid deployment centre or ‘Virtual VMIC’ whilst the permanent VMIC facility was being built.
Dr Matthew Duchars, chief executive, The Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre, said: “This is a milestone moment in the UK’s fight against Covid-19. These suites, which house VMIC equipment, will have the ability to make tens of millions of doses of the current leading vaccine candidate.
“The approval from the MHRA is testament to the hard work and dedication of teams across VMIC, Oxford Biomedica and all the partners working with us on this vital project.“
Business Secretary Alok Sharma, said: “We need to be ready to manufacture a vaccine by the millions as quickly as possible if a breakthrough is made.
“Building up the UK’s capability to produce a Covid-19 vaccine at scale is an essential part of our pandemic response, which is why we have moved so quickly to establish a domestic manufacturing base from scratch.
“The approval of these two critical manufacturing suites will ensure we have even more capacity to protect the public as soon as a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine becomes available.”
John Dawson, chief executive officer of Oxford Biomedica, said: “We are delighted that these suites in Oxbox are now operational. I want to personally thank all of those at Oxford Biomedica who have worked tirelessly to bring these suites on-line so quickly to enable the manufacturing at scale of the vaccine candidate. We also want to thank VMIC for their support with the rapid deployment of their equipment to our site, which has played a key part in achieving operational readiness of these suites in such a short timeframe”