Fujifilm Gets $265M Federal Contract To Support Coronavirus Vaccine Manufacturing

Fujifilm Holdings Corporation FUJIF has been awarded a $265 million federal contract to support the manufacturing of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine candidate, the United States Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday.

What happened

The Japanese company's unit Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies subcontracts manufacturing at the Texas A&M Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM), a public-private partnership between Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Texas A&M University.

The U.S. government has reserved CIADM's capacity until December 2021 for the development of COVID-19 vaccines, such as a candidate from Novavax, Inc NVAX, under Operation Warp Speed, which was described by HHS Secretary Alex Azar as “one of the largest vaccine manufacturing efforts in recent history.”

Fujifilm earlier this week announced it had entered an agreement with Novavax to "manufacture bulk drug substance" for the Maryland-based company's coronavirus vaccine candidate at its site in Morrisville, North Carolina. The Tokyo-based company said "the technology transfer from North Carolina to Texas will begin in late 2020 with expanded mass production of the vaccine candidate starting in early 2021."

Novavax has received $1.6 billion in federal funding for the NVX-CoV2373 vaccine candidate.

Why It Matters

Manufacturing and distribution of a potential vaccine is a key obstacle with manufacturers preparing to overcome such challenges even before a safe vaccine is found to be able to faster deliver the successful candidate, CNBC noted earlier.

On Sunday, Moderna Inc MRNA said it received another $472 million dollars from the Trump administration, in addition to the original $483 million it was awarded in support of its vaccine candidate.

The company also started the late-stage testing for its coronavirus vaccine on Monday, alongside another candidate developed by Pfizer Inc PFE and its German partner BioNTech SE BNTX. Johnson & Johnson JNJ is expecting to start the late-stage clinical trials for its vaccine candidate ahead of schedule in September. 

Price Action

Fujifilm Holdings OTC shares closed 7.02% higher at $47.09 on Monday.