GlaxoSmithKline awarded $274m HHS contract

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been awarded a $274m contract from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to speed the development of new cell culture-based seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines and to scale-up cell culture manufacturing capability at its Marietta, PA facility.

The multinational will be reimbursed by HHS for costs up to $274m incurred over the five-year contract, payable through the Department's Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Office of Research and Development Coordination.

GSK will undertake clinical programmes to support filing of a Biologics Licence Application for a cell culture-based trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine, and to complete Phase II studies of an H5N1 cell culture-based pandemic influenza vaccine. It will continue to make an investment in excess of $100m at its Marietta, PA facility to establish a domestic cell culture flu vaccine manufacturing site.

The company's research efforts will be focused on cell culture-based manufacturing technologies which are intended to offer a number of potential advantages over traditional egg-based manufacturing processes, including increased flexibility in generating a rapid surge in production capacity and elimination of the dependence on hens" eggs in the longer term.

GlaxoSmithKline has an active research and development program targeted at both seasonal and pandemic influenza, and has recently committed over $2bn to expand capacity for manufacturing flu vaccine and its anti-viral influenza treatment Relenza (zanamivir for inhalation).

At the end of March, the company announced the start of an international clinical trial programme to test two egg-based pandemic vaccines against the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus in humans. The company has also recently acquired a major influenza vaccine manufacturer, ID Biomedical Corporation, in North America, providing it with a significant increase in flu vaccine manufacturing capacity.