MedImmune Leases Vax-Mfg. Site from HGS

MedImmune has signed an agreement with Human Genome Sciences to lease a portion of the HGS headquarters facility in Rockville, MD, for the development and manufacturing of clinical trial material for cell culture-based seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccine. The expanded capability will support MedImmune’s commitment to pandemic influenza vaccine development per a five- year, approximately $170 million contract awarded last year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Financial terms of the lease were not disclosed.

“While we are currently expanding our biologics manufacturing facility in Frederick, MD for potential use in producing pandemic vaccine as well as other products in our pipeline, the immediate availability of the existing HGS facility allows us to expedite certain development steps toward expanding our capacity to produce cell culture-based influenza vaccines,” stated Alan Taggart, MedImmune’s vice president of government project management. “This should be particularly useful as we prepare to initiate our clinical trials of cell culture influenza vaccine under our HHS contract commitment.”

MedImmune currently develops, manufactures and markets FluMist (Influenza Virus Vaccine Live, Intranasal), a live, attenuated, needle-free seasonal influenza vaccine. The company is also working with the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to apply MedImmune’s proprietary technology to develop pandemic influenza vaccines.