Pharmaceutical major Wockhardt has signed a deal with the UK government to supply COVID-19 vaccine under development and testing by AstraZeneca and researchers from Oxford University.

Announcing the deal with UK government, Wockhardt said that the company has reserved fill-and-finish capacity — the final manufacturing step of putting vaccines into vials or syringes and packaging them — as part of the agreement. AstraZeneca has indicated it would need 30 million fill-and-finish doses of their vaccine candidate.

Governments across the world are trying to strike deals with pharmaceutical companies for supply of COVID-19 vaccine. Many vaccines are undergoing trials in different parts of the world as researchers are working round the clock to find an effective and safe vaccine for COVID-19. As per WHO data, 26 vaccines are undergoing human clinical trails while more than 150 are in early stage of R&D.

Confirming the deal with Wockhardt, Kate Bingham, chair of U.K. Vaccines Task Force said, “Fill finish is a critical step in the process to get the vaccine in a form to be given to patients. The agreement with Wockhardt will boost our capability to ensure that.”

Wockhardt’s facility in Wrexham, Wales will also be ready by September and this production facility will work exclusively for production of vaccines for the UK government.

After the news was shared with the exchanges about the vaccine production deal, Wockhardt stock jumped by 10 percent during the trading session.