WALTHAM, Mass., July 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science, continues to expand global capacity and capabilities across its leading pharma services network to support customers in government, industry and academia as they accelerate development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, therapies and other treatments. The company is now supporting more than 200 of these projects globally.
"Well before the pandemic, we were strategically investing in capacity and capabilities to increase manufacturing and supply chain flexibility for our customers, and this has enabled us to rapidly pivot to also support the COVID-19 response," said Marc N. Casper, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. "The company is well-positioned to take the lead in supporting development of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines in addition to delivering critical medicines to patients for treating cancer, genetic diseases and other serious health conditions."
To support accelerated vaccine development in the U.S, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced funding to support the expansion of Thermo Fisher's manufacturing capacity for sterile injectables, which can be used to fill a high volume of vaccine doses. Thermo Fisher is also supporting multiple vaccine programs globally that are in or entering human clinical trials, providing critical capacity and expertise that has accelerated development and readiness by months.
The company has also expanded capacity for customers who are developing new and existing therapies, including promising anti-viral drugs, to meet increased demand and enable biopharma customers to significantly compress timelines for delivery to patients. For instance, through accelerated manufacturing of a common anti-inflammatory treatment to relieve COVID-19 symptoms, Thermo Fisher teams produced and distributed a year's worth of medicine in just a few months, helping to meet a surge in hospital demand.
In addition to its work on COVID-19-related vaccines and therapies, the company continues to ensure that patients undergoing clinical trials continue to receive the critical medicines they need. A "site to patient" program, launched at the start of the pandemic, has ensured clinical trial patients have uninterrupted access to life-saving investigational drug shipments without having to visit a clinic, one of many efforts to maintain supply chain continuity during the pandemic.
Learn more about Thermo Fisher pharma services and its response to COVID-19 here.