Mer­ck opens Vir­ginia plant to sup­port UNICEF deal for HPV vac­cines

A con­struc­tion project built around ex­pand­ing the vac­cine man­u­fac­tur­ing ca­pa­bil­i­ties at a Mer­ck site in Elk­ton, VA, has been com­plet­ed. The up­grades will sup­port the com­pa­ny’s hu­man pa­pil­lo­mavirus vac­cine, Gar­dasil 9, once it gains re­view and ap­proval from reg­u­la­tors.

About 150 new jobs have been added to the site, as the lo­ca­tion is now 120,000 square feet larg­er.

“As we con­tin­ue to in­crease pro­duc­tion of our HPV vac­cines, we are pri­or­i­tiz­ing ac­cess in coun­tries with a high bur­den of dis­ease, in­clud­ing coun­tries el­i­gi­ble for sup­port from Gavi and UNICEF,” Priya Agraw­al, glob­al lead for HPV Vac­cines at Mer­ck, said. “Through our long-term agree­ment with UNICEF, we plan to pro­vide 91.5 mil­lion dos­es of our HPV vac­cines for use in Gavi-sup­port­ed coun­tries from 2021-2025, and we have of­fered ad­di­tion­al dos­es be­yond that agree­ment as need­ed to help meet grow­ing de­mand.”

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER