Meridian will manufacture up to 10 clinical experimental vaccines per year at its biopharmaceutical facility located in Memphis, Tennessee. Meridian will be working closely with the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases (LTD) of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), engaged in vaccine development and identification of new agents of viral diseases.
The contract requires production and safety testing of experimental non-influenza and influenza virus vaccines and other vaccine-related products for use in humans. Meridian will be manufacturing suspensions of viruses that have been shown by evaluation in vitro and in vivo to be promising candidates.
Richard Eberly, president, Meridian Life Science, said: “Through collaboration with the LID of the NIAID/NIH, we are hopeful that many of these experimental vaccines will ultimately be used for the prevention of viral diseases in humans.”