Morrisville, NC – The Triangle has joined the race to find a coronavirus vaccine, with a Morrisville company that makes one of the candidate drugs.
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies is working with Novavax, a Maryland firm that recently won a $ 1.6 billion federal contract to develop a vaccine. While Novavax is the brain behind the effort, Diosynth, a contract manufacturer specializing in the production of vaccines and gene therapy, is the muscle.
“We are the act of support”, Diosynth Boss Business Officer Andy Fenny said on Friday. “We do not own the technology that is being used. We are allowing them to reach the market as quickly as possible.”
“Quickly” is the operative word for President Donald Trump, who will visit the Diosynth plant on Monday to promote his administration’s Operation Warp Speed, which is trying to compress the vaccine development process that lasts years in a matter of months.
The Novavax vaccine is in a phase 1 clinical trial and is expected to move to phase 2 in mid-August and phase 3 in the fall.
“TThe North Carolina team has basically dropped everything [and] he worked overtime, “said Fenny.” They are killing themselves to make sure we can get this product to the clinic as soon as possible. “
Trump’s visit only adds to the “kinda crazy” atmosphere at the Morrisville plant, he said.
“I think our team is so excited that they are being recognized for the work that they have done,” he said. “We’ve had a number of people from the advanced team come to the site to walk the routes the president will take as he moves around the site, just to make sure he sees everything he wants to see while he’s here.”
Dr. Barton Haynes, an immunology expert at Duke University, said research and development of vaccines against HIV and other diseases are allowing companies to work at full speed on a coronavirus vaccine without sacrificing safety.
“All of that technology was developed in the field of HIV vaccines,” Haynes said. “All of these companies and all of these researchers, now there are 150 groups around the world that are working on this problem, they are using all of this technology. So we love that there are a lot of people working on this problem.” so that a solution to this problem can be found very quickly. So we want a lot of shots on goal. “
Haynes said he is confident there will be a vaccine for the public no later than next summer and possibly as soon as Jyearbook.
Fenny said that if another vaccine candidate is finally approved for distribution, Diosynth will work with that developer to produce doses to distribute to the public.
“We have taken the essence of Operation Warp Speed and really demonstrated it,” he said. “Our team … has taken all of their technical expertise, and we are applying all of the ability that we have on the ground in North Carolina to get the job done in a couple of weeks that would normally take months.”
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