The company targets 3 billion doses of vaccine, globally
As the pandemic continues to spread throughout the world, the need for testing and supplying potential vaccines is on the rise. On August 14th, no profit vaccine access was on the agreement of AstraZeneca concluded with the European Commission supplying up to 400 million doses of the AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccine to EU member states. Recently, the company has expanded its agreement with cell therapy firm Oxford Biomedica to mass-produce its COVID-19 potential vaccine.
This vaccine access in an equitable manner will further allow EU member states to redirect doses to other European countries. While the AZD1222 is widely watched as a potential coronavirus vaccine, its main portfolio of treatments for cancer, diabetes, and heart diseases.
The British drugmaker’s shares gained as much as 1.5% to trade at 84.6 pounds by 0807 GMT, outperforming the benchmark FTSE-100 index, after Oxford Biomedica announced the expanded agreement and on news of the EU approval for Imfinzi (treats aggressive lung cancer).
Cambridge-based AstraZeneca’s vaccine is among the leading candidates in the global race for a successful vaccine and it has entered late-stage trials in the United States. The company targets 3 billion doses of the vaccine globally and the first doses to be delivered by the end of 2020.
“AstraZeneca would give it 15 million pounds ($20 million) upfront to reserve manufacturing capacity at Oxford Biomedica’s plant and that it could get an additional 35 million pounds under a new 18-month deal”, said Oxford Biomedica.
The September 1 deal could be expanded further by another 18 months into 2022 and 2023, sending its share price up 2.1% to 862 pence.
The company, however, did not specify how many doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine it expects to produce under the expanded deal, which is for “large-scale commercial manufacture,” according to its statement.
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