Novavax Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX) today joined the State of Maryland and Montgomery County in celebration of the opening of the company’s new $5 million vaccine production facility at the company’s headquarters in Rockville, Md. The 5,000 square-foot plant will be used to produce vaccines using the company’s virus-like particle (VLP) technology, which will combat a broad range of infectious diseases.
The facility has the capacity to supply 10 million doses of the influenza vaccine for the company’s current clinical programs. According to the press release, the facility marks a “major milestone” for the company’s development team.
“This facility is seen as a model vaccine plant for production of all of our virus-like-particle-based vaccines and will serve as a prototype for other similar local country facilities through collaborators such as GE Healthcare,” Rahul Singhvi, Sc.D., president and CEO of Novavax stated.
He continued, “It incorporates new processes that are designed to increase production yields with significantly less infrastructure and capital cost compared to current approved vaccine facilities. Our production technology, which can be used to produce many types of vaccines in a single facility, combined with our use of disposable materials, offer the potential advantage of simple portability of production equipment to sites around the world, where vaccines may be urgently needed.”
Traditional egg-based vaccine production is expensive, and usually requires large centralized manufacturing plants with complex infrastructures. Novavax’s new facility uses an alternative cell-based technology, disposable manufacturing systems and requires less production infrastructure. The company’s methods will allow the production of vaccines within 12 weeks of flu strain identification – half the time of traditional manufacturing methods – offering advanced disease control.
“Novavax’s decision to relocate their corporate headquarters to Maryland and expand with this new state-of-the-art vaccine production facility is a tremendous win for both Montgomery County and the State of Maryland,” David W. Edgerley, secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development stated. “This new facility will not only build on Governor O’Malley’s vision to strengthen our State’s reputation as a bioscience powerhouse, but also puts Maryland on the forefront of disease control and prevention.”
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