Broader than initially reported, Merck & Co.’s agreement with BARDA extends beyond J&J’s recently authorized vaccine to other COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics as needed.

‘Wartime’ contract with BARDA will fund up to $268.8m in production site upgrades so Merck can also produce other COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics as needed.

Chris Boshoff, Pfizer Oncology chief development officer, said lessons from the rapid pace of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine program are being applied to elranatamab and other cancer therapies.

There is one orphan drug among the five new marketing authorization applications that the European Medicines Agency has under review. All five drugs will be reviewed under standard review timelines.