Emergent inks $84.5M in manufacturing deals across two programs
Emergent BioSolutions, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, has announced two manufacturing agreements totaling approximately $84.5 million to support a vaccine program and a clinical-stage biologic therapy.
In one agreement, Emergent will partner with Substipharm Biologics in a deal valued at about $34.5 million to manufacture drug substance for a Japanese encephalitis vaccine at its Canton, Massachusetts facility, according to the company. Emergent will also serve as the exclusive distributor of the vaccine to the U.S. government, pending regulatory approval. The company said it has initiated scale-up activities at the site, which recently received a “no action indicated” classification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration following a 2026 inspection.
Joe Papa, president and CEO of Emergent, said in a statement that the Japanese encephalitis vaccine partnership is intended to onshore production of critical medicines and positions the Canton facility for future strategic manufacturing partnerships.
Separately, Emergent signed a multi-year agreement with SAB Biotherapeutics valued at approximately $50 million to support development and manufacturing of SAB-142, a therapy in clinical development for type 1 diabetes. The agreement includes process development, technology transfer, clinical manufacturing and potential commercial supply, with a portion of the contract value tied to regulatory and commercial milestones.
Bill Hartzel, senior vice president of manufacturing and bioservices at Emergent, said in a statement that the Winnipeg, Manitoba facility in Canada is equipped to offer integrated drug substance and drug product manufacturing services as SAB Biotherapeutics advances SAB-142.
According to the company, the agreements reflect continued demand for domestic and integrated manufacturing capacity to support both public health preparedness and advancement of complex biologics through clinical development and commercialization.