Somerset-based Catalent Inc. said Monday it signed an agreement with AstraZeneca to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Catalent Biologics, Catalent’s manufacturing facility in Anagni, Italy, will provide vial filling and packaging capacity to the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca PLC and prepare for large-scale commercial supply of the University of Oxford’s adenovirus-vector-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222.

Catalent will prepare the facility to enable around-the-clock manufacturing schedules to supply hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine candidate from August 2020, and potentially through to March 2022, should the product be approved by regulatory agencies.

The recombinant adenovirus vaccine technology was created by the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, and the vaccine candidate is currently in clinical trials.

“Catalent has significant experience in the tech transfer and rapid scale-up of vaccine programs to meet demand,” said President and Chief Operating Officer Alessandro Maselli.

“Our manufacturing site in Anagni, Italy has served for many years as a primary launch facility for new medicines, and the plant’s skilled team will take great pride in preparing to manufacture this vaccine candidate for COVID-19 and ensuring that the product will be able to reach patients as quickly as possible if approved,” he added.