GRAM Partners with Johnson & Johnson for Fill/Finish of Vaccine Candidate

Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (GRAM), an injectable contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), announced in a September 25, 2020 press release that it has entered into an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, to support the fill/finish manufacture of its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate. Teams from GRAM and Janssen are working to transfer the manufacturing process to GRAM’s new facility in Grand Rapids, MI in preparation for the start of vaccine production.

“Should their vaccine candidate be approved, the opportunity to serve the population with a vaccine to combat the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Johnson & Johnson is an extraordinary privilege,” said Tom Ross, president and CEO of GRAM, in the press release.

GRAM is expanding domestic fill/finish capacity for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics for companies that have agreements with the federal government to meet its Operation Warp Speed goals, the company said in the press release. The GRAM expansion is funded, in part, by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the Department of Defense’s Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND).