Cobra Biologics, part of the Cognate BioServices family, an international CDMO for biologics and pharmaceuticals, today announced it has signed a supply agreement with AstraZeneca UK Ltd. ("AstraZeneca") to provide GMP manufacture of the adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222...

Cobra Biologics, part of the Cognate BioServices family, an international CDMO for biologics and pharmaceuticals, today announced it has signed a supply agreement with AstraZeneca UK Ltd. ("AstraZeneca") to provide GMP manufacture of the adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222, previously known as ChAdOx1 n-CoV-19. The production agreement is part of AstraZeneca's recently announced in-licensed programme with the University of Oxford to ensure broad and equitable supply of the vaccine throughout the world, at no profit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cobra hit the ground running with AstraZeneca and other manufacturing organisations to provide large scale manufacturing capacity of AZD1222 vaccine. Cobra, along with other consortium members, will be manufacturing the vaccine with first deliveries to begin in the UK in September 2020.

The agreement is a further development of Cobra's announcement in March 2020, that the Company is working as part of a consortium with the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, and others, to rapidly develop, scale-up and produce the recombinant adenovirus vector ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.

Peter Coleman, Chief Executive at Cobra Biologics, said: "I am extremely proud of the contribution made by the Cobra team alongside our consortium partners and despite the current restrictive requirements in place, the progress being made with demanding timelines is outstanding. Cobra's considerable expertise in GMP viral vector scale up and manufacture will be critical to a successful manufacturing campaign. The agreement with AstraZeneca comes at an opportune time for us as we bring three additional viral vector suites online as part of our ongoing advanced therapies expansion programme."

Each of the Company's GMP approved facilities are tailored to serving our customers around the world. We offer a broad range of integrated and stand-alone contract development and manufacturing services for the clinical trial and the commercial markets.

As a trusted provider and a key partner in the drug development and commercialisation process, we take pride in our manufacturing excellence and comprehensive range of services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.

Cobra is supported by leading shareholder EW Healthcare Partners, as well as Medivate Partners, a Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Fund and Blackrock, who continue supporting the business and its expansion activities.

Cobra Biologics, together with its parent company Cognate BioServices, is a leading international contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) providing the highest quality development and manufacturing services for the cell and gene therapy fields, ranging from early stage development and pre-clinical services to clinical and commercial supply. Cobra and Cognate service an international customer base from its manufacturing and development facilities in the UK, Sweden, and the US.