Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced that they have entered into a contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services agreement to accelerate the drug product manufacturing of lenzilumab™, an anti-human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) monoclonal antibody designed to prevent and treat an immune hyper-response called “cytokine storm.” Emergent will provide access to manufacturing capacity reserved for and provided by the U.S. government under Humanigen’s Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) in collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Lenzilumab is currently in a Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Humanigen intends to file for emergency use authorization (EUA) in the first quarter of 2021. Under the terms of the agreement, Emergent will provide its integrated CDMO services for the manufacturing of drug product batches to support Humanigen’s efforts to increase supply of lenzilumab in anticipation of a potential EUA beginning in the first quarter of 2021, including utilization of a new state-of-the-art flex fill line at Emergent’s Baltimore, MD (Camden) drug product manufacturing facility. This newly expanded facility was built to provide increased capacity and flexibility to support companies in need of clinical and commercial manufacturing capabilities. The parties intend to negotiate a commercial manufacturing services agreement that could include future fill batches for a biologics license application (BLA).