Thermo Fisher Scientific reports it is offering support to government, industry and academic customers around the world, each working to develop and produce vaccines, therapies and other treatments for the virus. To date, the company reportedly is supporting more than 200 such products.
According to Marc Casper (chair, president and CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific) the company had been working to expand its presence prior to the pandemic’s arrival.
“We were strategically investing in capacity and capabilities to increase manufacturing and supply chain flexibility for our customers, and this has enabled us to rapidly pivot to also support the COVID-19 response," Casper said. “The company is well-positioned to take the lead in supporting development of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines in addition to delivering critical medicines to patients for treating cancer, genetic diseases and other serious health conditions."
In order to accelerate US vaccine development, 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 (HHS), announced funding to support expansion of Thermo Fisher's manufacturing capacity for sterile injectables; these reportedly can be used to fill a high volume of vaccine doses. Thermo Fisher is also supporting multiple vaccine programs globally that are already in, or are about to enter, human clinical trials.
Additionally, Thermo Fisher Scientific reports it has expanded capacity for customers seeking to develop new and existing therapies, including promising anti-viral drugs, to meet increased demand and enable biopharma customers to significantly compress timelines for delivery to patients. Recently, for example, Thermo Fisher teams harnessed accelerated manufacturing of a common anti-inflammatory treatment to relieve COVID-19 symptoms, producing and distributing a year's worth of medicine in just a few months to help meet a surge in hospital demand.
On top of its COVID-19-related work and support of clients, Thermo Fisher reports it is making efforts to ensure clinical trials continue to be supplied with medications via a ‘site to patient’. Launched early in the early days of the pandemic, the program is designed to make sure trial patients have sustained access to investigational drug shipments without having to travel to a clinic.
