DoD and HHS Select Corning for COVID-19 Vaccine Packaging

NCMA Member Corning has announced it will receive $204 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to expand domestic manufacturing capacity of Corning Valor^® Glass Vials to support the vaccination and treatment of billions of patients. BARDA is a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DoD) partnership. Corning will provide priority access to designated BARDA vaccine and drug development partners.

Wendell P. Weeks, Corning’s chairman and chief executive officer, said, “We’re delighted that BARDA has selected Corning as a packaging provider for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Our Valor Glass provides the strongest, fastest to fill, and highest-quality pharmaceutical glass vials ever produced. It helps protect patients and addresses existing bottlenecks. Corning is ready to do our part in the fight against the pandemic, as well as to help prepare for future public health emergencies.”

BARDA funding will enable Corning to accelerate Valor Glass tubing and vial manufacturing at three U.S. facilities in Big Flats, New York; Durham, North Carolina; and Vineland, New Jersey. Increased vial manufacturing capacity will be important as pharmaceutical companies enter COVID-19 clinical trials to produce vaccines and treatments under Operation Warp Speed (OWS).

The White House launched OWS in May to bring effective COVID-19 vaccine to the US market by 2021. OWS is a public-private partnership to facilitate, at an unprecedented pace, the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 countermeasures, between components of HHS, including CDC, FDA, NIH, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA); the Department of Defense; private firms; and other federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It will coordinate existing HHS-wide efforts, including the NIH's ACTIV partnership for vaccine and therapeutic development, NIH's RADx initiative for diagnostic development, and work by BARDA.