Johnson & Johnson boost vaccine production at Dutch facility
The facility, which represents a significant investment in vaccine development, global health, and pandemic preparedness, will be operated by Janssen Vaccines and Prevention B.V. – part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of J&J.
Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.
Janssen’s investigational vaccine pipeline, which will be launched from the facility, aims to prevent against diseases such as HIV, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Influenza, Ebola and Zika. “We’re scaling up our manufacturing capabilities in order to support the development and global rollout of this pipeline,”
The facility will also support global pandemic preparedness efforts, including collaboration with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to develop a vaccine against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
R&D platforms at the facility will include Janssen’s proprietary AdVac viral vector vaccines technology and PER.C6 its manufacturing platform.
According to Janssen, the platform has the potential to enable high capacity, high-speed manufacturing at a lower cost.
The facility also houses technological and manufacturing platforms that support large-scale production of its vaccines for late-stage clinical trials. Pending regulatory approvals, the site will also be responsible for launching new vaccines on a mass scale for public use.
Positioned to protect
Janssen has successfully completed the first engineering runs at the plant, said the spokesperson. One of the first tasks to be handled by the facility is the production of clinical trial batches for its HIV vaccine program.
“The new facility will help us achieve our mission of delivering transformative vaccines that change the trajectory of human health. That’s our goal, and now we have the means to achieve it,” we were told.
According to Janssen, the firm has a longstanding relationship with the Netherlands and is currently the biggest private investor in R&D across all industries in the region.
“By investing locally, we hope to protect globally,” said Janssen’s head of global therapeutics, Johan Van Hoof, in a statement.
