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(Alliance News) - Oxford Biomedica PLC on Thursday said it has landed a supply agreement with AstraZeneca PLC for the manufacture of a potential Covid-19 vaccine being co-developed by the FTSE 100-listed drugmaker.
Shares in the gene and cell therapy firm shot up 11% to 794.97 pence each in the wake of the news. Astra was 3.4% higher at 8,634.00p each.
The deal relates to the manufacturing of the AZD1222 Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which Astra is developing alongside the University of Oxford. The potential vaccine recently entered clinical trials in the UK.
"Oxford Biomedica is working alongside AstraZeneca and other manufacturing organisations to provide large scale manufacturing capacity for this vaccine candidate," Oxford Biomedica explained.
"As part of the clinical and commercial supply agreement, AstraZeneca will have access to Oxford Biomedica's new 7,800 square metre commercial manufacturing centre Oxbox, located in Oxford, UK."
The initial agreement will see Oxford Biomedia provide "multiple batches" of the vaccine to Astra, "the majority of which are expected to be produced throughout 2020".
Oxford Biomedia's Chief Executive Officer John Dawson said: "We are proud to be a part of the manufacturing consortium working with the Jenner Institute at University of Oxford, for the early manufacturing and scale up of this viral vector based candidate for Covid-19.
"Following the recent announcement of an agreement between the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, we are very pleased to be one of AstraZeneca's global network of manufacturing partners, and look forward to them being the third company to have rapid access to our specialised manufacturing capacity for this vaccine candidate at Oxbox."
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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