London - Cobra Biologics on Tuesday said
it had signed a supply agreement with AstraZeneca to
manufacture its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, with a view to a
first delivery of the potential vaccine to Britain in September.
Cobra is one of the firms that has been working to
manufacture the vaccine, which was initially being developed by
scientists at the University of Oxford.
The vaccine is now known as AZD1222 after AstraZeneca joined
forces with the university to develop, produce and distribute
the vaccine candidate.
In May, the chief executive of Cobra Biologics said it could
be ready to produce 1 million doses a month, and would still
have a part to play in making the vaccine after the AstraZeneca
agreement with the University of Oxford.
"Cobra hit the ground running with AstraZeneca and other
manufacturing organisations to provide large-scale manufacturing
capacity of AZD1222 vaccine," the company said in a statement.
"Cobra, along with other consortium members, will be
manufacturing the vaccine with first deliveries to begin in the
UK in September 2020."
Cobra Biologics did not disclose financial details or the
size of the supply agreement.