A group of 14 private-sector and academic partners in Japan and abroad have boosted their production capacity for coronavirus vaccines from 200,000 to one million doses to be ready by March next year.
Led by the Japanese biotech venture, AnGes, the union aims to upgrade its original plan to a five-fold increase to ensure fast access of the vaccine to the domestic public.
The choice to extend vaccine output was made after associates decided to increase the supply of raw materials for manufacturing the vaccine. Takara Bio, a member of the union responsible for production, currently has the equipment to culture approximately 200 liters of vaccine precursors. Additional material will be introduced to ramp up the maximum production capacity to up to 3,000 liters.
Furthermore, subdivisions of AGC and Shionogi have also volunteered to contribute intermediates for the vaccine. AnGes is developing a DNA vaccine that will utilize genetic material from the coronavirus.
Antibodies are expected to form from these genetic materials, which will serve as protection from COVID-19. Clinical trials for the vaccine are expected to commence soon.
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The Worldwide Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine
While pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and around the world scrabble to set up facilities to enable mass production of coronavirus vaccines, there is no assurance that Japan can import them. The Japanese government hopes to counteract any second wave of infection by establishing production capacity while vaccines are still in development.
The race for a vaccine is tight. As Moderna, a U.S. biotech company, already started clinical trials of its RNA vaccine, intending to produce a billion doses each year. Meanwhile, a collaboration by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in England aims for two billion doses.
Both parties have received financial support from the U.S. government, which means the U.S. would likely receive priority access to their resulting products.
The industry of vaccine production is a tough trade to enter right now, especially for newcomers. Manufacturing vaccines require high-level expertise and state of the art equipment to come up with high quality and effective end products. Four companies in Japan, including Daiichi Sankyo and Takeda Pharmaceutical, have the capability to produce such vaccines.
Vaccine Development in Japan
Japan was compelled to import vaccines back in 2009 during the influenza outbreak. But unfortunately, many doses had to be sacked because they remained to be unused before the one-year expiration date.
The Japanese government is also supporting the domestic development of vaccines. Just last week, a supplementary budget was passed to allow over 200 billion yen aimed at developing vaccines. Furthermore, the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development will distribute approximately $93.5 million among nine vaccine undertakings.
Aside from AnGes' project, Shionogi has also partnered with the National Institute of Infectious Diseases to develop a vaccine cooperatively. They are currently exchanging discussions with Japanese authorities to initiate trials this year.
The NIID and Shionogi aim to make the vaccine available in the market by the fall of next year. They are eventually considering expanding their production capacity at ten million doses.
Additionally, Daiichi Sankyo has allied with the University of Tokyo to develop a vaccine as well. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma's Canadian ancillary plans to start clinical trials for its vaccine in August.
