Merck joins hands with Johnson & Johnson for its Covid-19 vaccine development

Merck joins hands with Johnson & Johnson for its Covid-19 vaccine development

The Joe Biden Administration realized that Johnson had been lagging behind the production target. This tie-up could increase the potential capacity of Johnson & Johnson.

In the latest move, Merck & Co. (Merck) will join hands with Johnson & Johnson in its development of the Covid-19 vaccine. After getting out from the Covid-19 vaccine race, Merck has been finding opportunities where its expertise can be used in the fight for Covid-19.

Merck has signed an agreement with the Janssen Pharmaceuticals (JPI), one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. This agreement will aim to boost the supplies of Johnson & Johnson's effort for vaccine development. This tie-up will see the vaccine giant chip in on the drug substance, formulation, and vial filing for the single-dose shot of Johnson & Johnson.

Merck will be using its US plants for the production of drug substances and formulation, and filing of the vaccine vials for the vaccine. This is to be supported by the funding of HHS' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which will be chipping in up to $268.8 million for upgrading the US plant of Merck. The fund will be used to produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. However, the whole process might take up around two months to get the plant running and to develop the plant-making vaccine substance, as per a Washington Post report.

Almost half of the funding, amounting to around $105 million, will be available from BARDA. This will help adapt and make available two existing manufacturing sites so that the production process starts soon, preparing the plant to make the Covid-19 therapeutics. The funding will be used to upgrade and equip the facilities at the plant for the production of the Johnson & Johnson shot.

Reports from the Washington Post claimed that the officials from the Biden Administration realized that Johnson has been lagging behind the production target. This tie-up could increase the potential of the Johnson & Johnson capacity. The funding to Merck has been issued via Defense Production Act which President Joe Biden invoked to speed the access to materials for production such as equipment, machinery, and other supplies.

Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky said that it had 4 million doses to ship at launch and before the Merck tie-up had planned 20 million total for March and 100 million by the end of June.

Merck is also regularly in talks with the government and public health agencies to pump cash into its global manufacturing network planning to pump $20 billion-plus capital investment.

"We are steadfast in our commitment to contribute to the global response to the pandemic as part of the remarkable efforts of the entire medical and scientific community," Mike Nally, EVP of Human Health at Merck, said in a release.

This pandemic saw surprising things turning up. It is not the first time when rivalries are truing into partnership. Sanofi along with the Swiss giant Novartis has entered into a partnership with Pfizer and its German partner BioNtech. Moreover, Roche joined with Regeneron and Amgen partnered with Eli Lilly's.