COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - Local companies in the Bio-Corridor as well as Texas A&M are working on vaccine candidates to combat COVID-19. More than 300,000 Americans have now died from the virus.
At FuJiFilm Diosynth Biotechnologies they say they’re closer than ever to having new vaccines for COVID-19.
“We’ve been bringing our technical expertise and setting our facilities to bear on the Operation Warp Speed mission of delivering a safe and and effective vaccine to the American population,” said Gerry Farrell, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer.
He said they are working on manufacturing and distributing Novavax as well as an undisclosed vaccine candidate.
“Our colleagues in North Carolina started manufacture back in early summer and they’ve done some initial runs there and they’ve now transferred the manufacturing process to us here in Texas and we have started manufacturing that product for Novavax,” said Farrell.
Just across the street iBio is working on their own vaccine candidate. Staff said toxicology studies for iBio-201 are continuing and they expect results in early 2021. Farrell wasn’t sure when local candidates like Novavax would get FDA approval.
”Once Novavax gets approval then we’ll be ready to ship material from here,” Farell said.
There’s lots of optimism in the industry with Pfizer’s vaccine being distributed now.
”We’re probably several months away from the general population getting the vaccine,” said Farrell.
The company has also added about 220 jobs in the last four months as part of expansion efforts.
“In our planned construction we have brought in by six months and that construction is now completed. Equipment’s qualified and we’re ready to start manufacturing and with that construction we now have the largest facility of this type in the U.S.,” said Farrell.
They will add another 50 to 60 employees when a new FuJiFilm Diosynth Biotechnologies building is completed adjacent to their existing campus.
We also reached out to the Texas A&M System’s Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing for an update on their vaccine candidate work. We’ll keep you posted on what they say.
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December 16, 2020 at 07:01AM
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Local companies, Texas A&M continue work on COVID-19 vaccine candidates - KBTX
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