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Grand Rapids company selected to produce COVID-19 vaccine

Courtesy grandriverasepticmfg.com

A Grand Rapids company has received a contract from the federal government to manufacture an approved COVID-19 vaccine.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services describes Operation Warp Speed’s mission as aiming “to deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021.”

It and the U.S. Department of Defense have selected Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing to deliver millions of vials.

“The big pharma companies that are working on the vaccine are deep into their clinical trials and their formulation work. And what the government has done with this contract is it would enable us, GRAM, to be working with one of these big pharma companies to actually manufacture the vaccine at our facility in Grand Rapids.”

GRAM CEO, Tom Ross, says it’s an honor to be selected. The government is financially backing it and a number of drug makers including; AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merc, Moderna and NovaVax. Ross is forbidden to disclose his company’s pairing.

“I’m tremendously impressed with the work that’s been done and where we’re at right now," said Ross. "It really is a tremendous achievement, already.”

Ross is confident a vaccine will be ready in early 2021.

The U.S. Government has reserved 100% of GRAMS state-of-the-art line capacity housed within its 60,000 square foot finish/fill facility.