The adeonovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222, was co-invented by the University of Oxford and its spin-out company Vaccitech. It is currently in global Phase 3 trials and rolling reviews with regulators such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
In April, Dutch CDMO Halix became one of the original partners in the University of Oxford’s consortium for its manufacture: looking at how to support the move to large-scale manufacture of the vaccine. Today's agreement with AstraZeneca will see it now take on commercial manufacturing of drug substance at its state-of-the-art 6,700 m2 GMP manufacturing facility at the Leiden Bio Science Park in the Netherlands. The facility – which opened in November 2019- will be expanded with two additional viral vector lines to meet demand.
Alex Huybens, Chief Operations Officer, Halix, said: “Building on the solid foundations made with the University of Oxford, it’s our pleasure to expand our manufacturing support of AZD1222 with AstraZeneca. Through the consortium, the partners are bringing their collective expertise and manufacturing capabilities to support vaccine production and combat this evolving crisis.”
Halix is focused on mammalian expression systems for the production of viral vectors and recombinant proteins, and develops and manufactures of viral vectors used against infectious diseases, such as HIV, ZIKA, chikungunya and the flu. The Leiden Bio Science Park facility provides both clinical and commercial scale manufacturing capabilities in fully independent, self-contained Grade B and C cleanrooms for virus products.
