The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Snapdragon Chemistry are teaming up to develop a continuous manufacturing platform to produce a specific raw material for COVID-19 vaccines.
They are developing ribonucleotide triphosphates (NTPs), a critical raw material for COVID-19 vaccines that use messenger RNA technology. The project includes a scalable, continuous manufacturing process for the purification of NTPs.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) is present in all living cells and carries instructions from the DNA of one cell to another. Right now, one of the COVID-19 vaccines being developed with federal funding use mRNA technology and rely on NTPs.
With a small footprint and low capital cost, multiple identical platforms can be deployed to vaccine manufacturing facilities in the United States. This provides a more reliable way of producing the NTP component of some COVID-19 vaccines.
This project is one component of BARDA’s rapidly expanding COVID-19 medical countermeasure portfolio.
Snapdragon Chemistry, based in Waltham, Mass., is a chemical technology company focused on the design and development of manufacturing processes for chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
As part of the government’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, BARDA is working to remove any barriers to vaccine production and provide the services and expertise private sector partners need to accelerate development and manufacturing.