Merck’s Durham plant to make Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine, helping double production
The federal government will spend $105.4 million outfitting Merck’s Durham plant for the production of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, Merck confirmed Wednesday.
Merck’s 262-acre facility in north Durham will be one of two in the country to help ramp up manufacturing of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine — part of a massive effort to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. The second Merck facility is in West Point, Penn., a Merck spokesman said.
“Our Durham, N.C., facility is part of Merck’s global manufacturing network. This site is preparing to produce bulk drug substance for the J&J vaccine,” a Merck spokesman wrote in a statement to The News & Observer.
The funds will be used for the “repair or alteration of production buildings” and the manufacturing of a biological product at Merck’s Durham facility, according to a contract finalized March 1. Merck’s 262-acre facility manufactures millions of doses of vaccines every year.
Merck’s confirmation Wednesday came the same day that President Biden’s administration announced it will order an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The order has not been finalized, The Washington Post reports, but it would result in 200 million doses of the vaccine this year — enough for 200 million people.
A day after the federal contract was signed with Merck earlier this month, Biden announced the company would help with the production with plants equipped using the Defense Production Act. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said two Merck plants would be equipped to produce the vaccine — one to manufacture the drug, and one for the “fill and finish” part of the process.
“This was a step taken because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a more traditional vaccine, and Merck’s experience manufacturing other vaccines will allow it to scale and effectively produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” Psaki said during a March 2 briefing.
The $105.4 million is an “initial investment,” according to a release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and will be used to “convert, upgrade and equip Merck facilities.”
Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House COVID-19 Response Team, said March 3 that Merck’s production could begin in May, helping double the amount of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that’s available, according to a transcript of the press briefing.
At an event at the White House on Wednesday, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier said the pandemic has created “profound challenges and hardships” that required collaboration between rival companies and the government.
“Now some observers may view this corporate partnership as the coming together of rivals. But in these extraordinary times, we are colleagues, not competitors,” Frazier said. “The funding made available by the Biden administration will enable us to adapt our manufacturing facilities for the production of COVID-19 vaccines and medicines, including Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine.”
Merck’s Durham facility at the Treyburn Corporate Park is named after Maurice R. Hilleman, a Merck scientist who developed vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella and hepatitis A and B, according to the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught.
The vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is among the products manufactured at the Durham plant. Amanda Taylor, who leads the Durham site for Merck, told NCBiotech that the facility would manufacture “nearly 50 million doses” of vaccine over the course of 2020.
Bill Bullock, who heads economic development at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, praised the state’s workforce and investment in the biotech industry following Merck’s confirmation of Durham’s plant.
“North Carolina’s long-term investment in the life sciences is not just good for our state. This growing cluster of biomanufacturing companies serves a global need that will only continue to require more of what our outstanding workforce can provide,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Durham plant expansion
In 2019, Merck announced a 225,000-square-foot expansion at the Durham plant that would be used to make the active ingredients in Gardasil. The vaccine is used to prevent some forms of cancer caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), including some gynecologic cancers; anal cancer; some head and neck cancers; and genital warts.
That expansion was set to bring 425 new jobs to the Triangle and be completed in 2022, The News & Observer reported.
As part of that project, Merck invested $30 million at its facility in Wilson, about 75 miles east of Durham.
In December 2019, Merck announced a $57 million expansion at the Wilson plant that would be used to build a filling and packaging line for eight to 10 million doses of the company’s RotaTeq vaccine, which protects against rotavirus gastroenteritis in children.
As part of the RotaTeq investment, NCBiotech reported, Merck planned to build a portable POD for filling and packaging, allowing the company to start production more quickly and use a smaller footprint than more traditional operations.
Merck announced further plans in January to expand the Durham plant, with a facility dedicated to the production of TICE BCG, a medicine used to treat bladder cancer. The company said the expansion could add 100 local jobs but would likely take five to six years to complete.
Merck’s ties to COVID vaccine
Merck was working on two COVID-19 vaccine candidates, but stopped development in January after it determined that they provided less protection than other vaccines or than the natural protections after infection.
Instead, Merck has focused its effort on drugs like molnupiravir, a medication that scientists have found likely prevents COVID-19 infection if taken around the time of exposure and significantly lessens the impact of the disease in those who are infected. Both Merck and Ridgeback Bio are conducting clinical trials of molnupiravir.
Merck isn’t the only company contributing to the production of COVID-19 vaccines in the Triangle.
Fujifilm Diosynth signed a contract last year to manufacture Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine at its facility in Research Triangle Park.
Unlike the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, though, Novavax’s vaccine candidate has not yet been approved by the FDA.
The contract has been a win for Fujifilm, however, and since it landed the contract, the company has hired more than 100 additional employees.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Merck’s Durham plant to make Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine, helping double production."
