(Alliance News) - Croda International PLC on Tuesday said it has agreed a deal to supply Pfizer Inc with novel excipients to aid in the manufacturing of the US firm's promising Covid-19 vaccine candidate.
On Monday, Pfizer and BioNTech SE announced their jointly developed vaccine was 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 infections in ongoing phase 3 trials.
Speciality chemical company Croda said it will supply Pfizer with four component excipients during the first three years of the five-year pact. Excipients are substances used in the manufacturing of vaccines as bulking agents.
"Croda's recently acquired subsidiary, Avanti Polar Lipids Inc, specialises in the development and production of high-purity lipids, to produce research and clinical trial quantities of excipients in order to stabilise formulations and enable delivery into the body by parenteral mechanism (injection) for drug and vaccine applications," Croda explained.
"The contribution from this contract is already included in Croda's trading expectations for 2020, including in its guidance of the impact of the Avanti acquisition. If Pfizer's publicly indicated vaccine doses for 2021 were to be required, the sales value of Croda's contract in 2021 could be of the order of USD100 million."
Croda shares were up 6.9% to 6,654.00 pence each in London on Tuesday afternoon after the announcement, having peaked at 6,884.00p. Over in New York, Pfizer shares were up 3.4% in pre-market trade on Tuesday at USD40.54.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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Croda International (CRDA)