A little less than a year after topping up its medical countermeasure contracts with Emergent BioSolutions, the federal government is back for more.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is modifying an existing 10-year supply contract with Emergent BioSolutions to the tune of an additional $62.4 million, the company said in a press release earlier this week.
Under the deal, Emergent will supply heptavalent botulism antitoxin (BAT) for U.S. stockpiling purposes. The drug is used to treat symptomatic botulism following suspected or confirmed exposure to botulinum neurotoxins across seven serotypes and can be used in both kids and adults, Emergent explained.
The upgraded deal is part of an ongoing effort by the U.S. government and medical countermeasure suppliers like Emergent to “address potential biologic threats from botulism,” the Maryland-based drugmaker said.
The latest agreement comes after the ASPR last July inked separate Emergent contract modifications worth more than $250 million to help pad supplies of four separate countermeasure drugs, including BAT.
Aside from the botulism antitoxin, the deals covered deliveries of “millions of doses” of Emergent’s adjuvanted anthrax vaccine Cyfendus, its smallpox vaccine Acam2000 and its vaccinia immune globulin intravenous drug product (VIGIV), which is used to treat a range of conditions caused by the vaccinia virus.
Emergent has long served as a key supplier of medical countermeasures for the U.S. government. In addition to products designed to protect against biologic threats, the company also sells the prominent opioid overdose reversal drug Narcan.
Following an ill-fated foray into COVID-19 vaccine production during the height of the pandemic, Emergent fell on hard times and subsequently unveiled a turnaround strategy under new CEO Joseph Papa last spring. The restructuring was announced a little less than a year after Emergent said it would de-emphasize its contract manufacturing and development business to better focus on its core portfolio of medical countermeasures.
As part of the turnaround effort, Emergent closed one of its core manufacturing plants in Baltimore and subsequently sold the facility to Indian CRDMO Syngene International in March.