U Of Pittsburgh Adds Vaccine Partners

Battelle, IBM, and Merck & Co. have joined the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and GE Healthcare in a vaccine facility initiative at UPMC. Battelle will provide preclinical R&D services, IBM will provide data analysis technology, and Merck will consult on drug development and bioprocessing. GE announced in October that it would provide design and development expertise, as well as equipment for the facility, which would be designed to produce multiple vaccines simultaneously and switch output from one vaccine to another in response to an emergency. The partnership, which is expected to create 1,000 jobs, plans to compete for government funding.