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(Adds UK prime minister's comment, details on EU)
By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT, March 29 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline has
agreed in principle to handle the final part of the
manufacturing process for up to 60 million doses of Novavax's
COVID-19 vaccine for use in Britain, widening the
company's role in the fight against the pandemic.
GSK said in a statement on Monday it would step in from May
for the final production steps and bottling into vials known as
"fill and finish" at its Barnard Castle facility in the
northeast of England, without compromising supply of other vital
medicines and vaccines.
A detailed agreement with the U.S. biotech firm Novavax and
the UK government's vaccines taskforce has yet to be signed, it
added.
Britain struck a deal to buy 60 million doses of Novavax’s
vaccine candidate in August.
Novavax will manufacture some of the vaccine using Fujifilm
Diosynth Biotechnologies facilities in Stockton-on-Tees,
northern England.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Britain's Prime
Minister Boris Johnson said production there had started, in
anticipation of the vaccine's approval by the Medicines and
Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
He said the effort would provide 50 million to 60 million
doses made in the UK.
Talks between Novavax and the European Union over supply of
as much as 200 million doses have dragged on, with the U.S.
biotech firm citing pandemic-related raw materials
shortages.
GSK and partner Sanofi suffered a development
setback in December, delaying their jointly developed vaccine.
But the British group has since agreed to collaborate on
production and vaccine development with Germany's CureVac
.
Novavax Inc's COVID-19 vaccine was shown this month to be
96% effective in preventing cases caused by the original version
of the coronavirus in a trial in Britain.
The vaccine was also found at the time to be 86% effective
in protecting against the more contagious B117 variant.
(Additional Reporting by Alistair Smout in London
Editing by Gareth Jones and Cynthia Osterman)
