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 The gene and cell therapy firm said on Monday it agreed to a
five-year partnership with the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation
Centre (VMIC) for equipment at its facility in Oxford, UK which
would also help it make other vaccines.
While it is unclear if vaccines will work against the disease caused
by the new coronavirus, dozens of companies are in the race to
develop one amid ongoing trials. AstraZeneca said last week it was
targeting two billion doses of its shot, AZD1222.
"This new partnership between VMIC and Oxford Biomedica ... will
specifically help ensure that we have the right skills in place to
manufacture a vaccine as soon as one is available," said Kate
Bingham, Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce.
AstraZeneca's vaccine, a type known as a recombinant viral vector
vaccine, uses a weakened version of the common-cold virus spiked
with proteins from the novel coronavirus to generate a response from
the body's immune system.
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The drugmaker in May partnered with Oxford Biomedica, spun off from the
University of Oxford in 1995, for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine.
VMIC was founded in 2018 by the University of Oxford, Imperial College and
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and it receives funding from the
UK Government's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
Oxford Biomedica shares were up 3% at 798 pence in early trading.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)
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