Do you have a product, service, or capacity to partner in the fight against COVID-19 or another health security threat? The federal U.S. Administration would like to hear from you. It has investment money and is willing to broker deals between partners and even competitors. 

BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of ASPR, the U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, invests in innovation to promote the health of Americans. It was announced today that BARDA, while using the Defense Production Act, will facilitate the first of what it hopes will include more unique and historic collaborations in the fight against COVID-19. Today's deal was between two pharmaceutical powerhouse companies and rivals, Jansson and Merck,  to make and deliver millions of COVID-19 vaccines to the American people in short order.

Johnson & Johnson, through its subsidiary, Jansson, are the makers of the 3rd COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the FDA for emergency use. They were facing the same manufacturing bottlenecks as did the makers of the first two vaccines; Pfizer in its collaboration with BioNTech, and Moderna, in its collaboration with Lonza, including supplies, equipment capacity limits and logistics.  But this time, those same snags will not slow down production. 

Instead, the current administration brokered an historic deal between J&J and one of its competitors, Merck, to allow Merck's facilities to be used in the manufacture and packaging of the J&J vaccine, to substantially increase output, and invoked the Defense Production Act to support the effort. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated today: "To further accelerate production of the J&J vaccine, President Biden also announced he has invoked the Defense Production Act to expedite materials in vaccine production, such as equipment, machinery and supplies like single use bags, and he has directed the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide daily logistical support to strengthen J&J’s efforts. With the urging and assistance of the Administration, J&J also will begin operating its manufacturing facilities 24/7 to maximize production output."

"These efforts will contribute to J&J’s ability to accelerate delivery of their vaccine doses from 100 million doses by the end of June to at or near 100 million doses by the end of May. In the long term, these actions will ultimately double J&J’s U.S. capacity to produce drug substance and increase the U.S. capacity for fill-finish."

The J&J vaccine is not mRNA based, but it has advantages over the first two. It does not need cold storage, and it only requires one vaccination, not two. Furthermore, although early testing seems to show it does not reach top protection for two to three months following its administration, once given the time, it produces a comparable level of protection, even against the worrisome variants.  It also nearly completely eliminated hospitalizations and death from the virus.

They also state that to date, BARDA-supported products have achieved 59 FDA approvals, licensures or clearances.