Therapy Areas: Infectious Diseases
Stevanato Group Inks Deal with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to Provide Pharma Glass Vials for 2 bn Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines Under Development
25 June 2020 - - Italy-based pharmaceutical glass containers and drug delivery systems provider Stevanato Group and CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), the global partnership at the forefront of funding and coordinating the development of COVID-19 vaccine candidates, have signed an agreement for the supply of 100m Type 1 Borosilicate glass vials to hold up to 2bn doses of a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus, should product(s) be proven safe and effective, the company said.

This supply is part of CEPI's efforts to rapidly speed up the vaccine development timeline through making progress on manufacturing in parallel with the clinical development of COVID-19 candidate vaccines.

As international efforts to find a vaccine to combat COVID-19 intensify, the most crucial element in global vaccination programs, once a successful vaccine candidate moves into the manufacturing phase, is the worldwide supply of medical-grade glass vials to deliver the billions of doses of vaccines needed to fight the virus.

Without medical glass vials, vaccines cannot be stored or delivered, and patients cannot be vaccinated.

Within this scenario and through this agreement, Stevanato Group, which produces annually 10bn units among drug delivery systems, sterile and bulk glass containers, plastic diagnostic and medical components, including proprietary products, becomes a key supplier to CEPI's COVID-19 vaccine programmes.

To date, CEPI has worked urgently and in coordination with its partners, investing up to USD 829m in nine COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

Built on the principles of speed, scale and access, CEPI's diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio includes a number of modern and innovative approaches, to increase the world's chances of finding a safe, effective and globally accessible vaccine.

The ultimate goal is to speed up the vaccine development timeframe to develop a successful vaccine in an accelerated 12-18-month timeframe.

The high-quality glass vials that CEPI have secured from Stevanato Group will be able to store 20 doses per vial (2 bn doses in total). Besides the provision of these 100 m vials, the group will also grant a "fast track" access to its glass vial forming lines provided by its company Spami.

Established in 1949, Stevanato Group is the world's largest, privately-owned designer and producer of glass primary packaging for the pharmaceutical industry.

CEPI is an partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics.

CEPI has moved with great urgency and in coordination with WHO in response to the emergence of COVID-19.

CEPI has initiated 9 partnerships to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus. The programmes will leverage rapid response platforms already supported by CEPI as well as new partnerships.

The aim is to advance COVID-19 vaccine candidates into clinical testing as quickly as possible.

Before the emergence of COVID-19 CEPI's priority diseases included Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, Nipah virus, Rift Valley Fever virus and Chikungunya virus.

CEPI also invested in platform technologies that can be used for rapid vaccine and immunoprophylactic development against unknown pathogens (Disease X).
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