• SL Seqirus has received a Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) award to complete the fill and finish process for additional pre-pandemic vaccines to further support the U.S. government's outbreak and preparedness response. 
• BARDA has requested adjuvanted H5N1 pre-pandemic vaccines and additional H5N8 antigen as part of its decision to expand its portfolio of pre-pandemic vaccines.
• This $34 million investment is the sixth avian influenza pandemic preparedness award made to CSL Seqirus by BARDA. 

CSL Seqirus, a business of CSL (ASX: CSL), has been selected by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to fill and finish additional pre-pandemic vaccine doses as part of the National Pre-Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Stockpile (NPIVS). This latest acquisition of pre-pandemic vaccine will further supplement BARDA's stockpile of vaccine to support the U.S. government's pre-pandemic response to avian influenza. 

"As a global leader in pandemic preparedness, this new award from BARDA emphasizes the value of collaboration in tackling global health threats as they emerge," said Marc Lacey, CSL Seqirus, Global Executive Director for Pandemic. "We're proud to be a pandemic partner to over thirty governments globally and to do our part to help safeguard and protect public health."

Under the terms of the $34 million award, CSL Seqirus will deliver approximately 3 million finished doses of MF59^®-adjuvanted H5N1 pre-pandemic vaccine and manufacture an additional lot of H5N8 antigen. Evidence produced by the CDC indicates both the H5N1 strain and the H5N8 strain are similar to A(H5N1) strains circulating among U.S. dairy cattle and suggests that both strains could be expected to induce a degree of protection in vaccinated individuals.^1,2

"Pandemic preparedness is a core part of who we are," said Jon Kegerise, Vice President of Manufacturing and Site Head at CSL Seqirus Holly Springs. "Our Holly Springs site was built to be able to deliver innovative pandemic solutions at industrial scale and speed."

CSL Seqirus' manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, built through a public-private partnership established in 2009 with BARDA, is the largest cell-based influenza vaccine producer in the world and is the first such domestic facility in the U.S. It utilizes a highly scalable method of production and is currently positioned to deliver 150 million influenza vaccine doses to support an influenza pandemic response within six months of a pandemic declaration. After this, a second wave of manufacturing could be enabled to provide further pandemic vaccine as needed. Seasonal vaccine manufacturing provides an essential "warm base" alongside ongoing R&D activity with influenza strains of pandemic potential, component and raw material stockpiles, seed libraries and technological know-how to be pandemic ready and manufacture at scale. 

This project has been supported in whole or in part with federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) under contracts HHSO100200900101C and 75A50122D00004.