HHS Creates Centers to Safeguard Public
- By BSTQ Staff
On June 18, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) established three new centers to produce vaccines and other medications used to safeguard public health in the face of crises. Known as the Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, the centers will be the first major domestic infrastructure in the U.S. to develop and create medical countermeasures to defend Americans against bioterrorism, flu pandemics and other epidemics. They will be led by Novartis, The Texas A&M University System and Emergent Manufacturing Operations Baltimore LLC, each of which will be part of a public-private partnership model that will include small biotech firms and academic institutions.
HHS will invest $400 million in the initial phases of the centers, and the private partnerswill contribute 35 percent of the total cost for the preliminary building stage. Under the contracts, which can be renewed for up to 25 years, these groundbreaking facilities will be constructed orretrofitted to integrate flexible, advanced manufacturing services.They will use modern cell- and recombinantbased vaccine technologies that have the ability to manufacture vaccines swiftly and affordably in order to respond to a nationwide emergency.