Novavax agrees huge supply deal with Gavi for 1.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Biotech will manufacture shots with partner SII for equitable vaccine distribution programme, COVAX

The vaccine doses will be manufactured and distributed by Novavax and Serum Institute of India (SII), the latter under an existing agreement between Gavi and SII.

The vaccine is currently in Phase III clinical trials in the US, Mexico, and the UK for the prevention of COVID-19. Novavax has previously reported positive interim efficacy results from the UK trial.

Gavi is working alongside the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on COVAX, which is the vaccines arm of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelarator and currently includes more than 190 participating countries.

Gavi leads the design and implementation of COVAX and will work with Novavax to finalize an advance purchase agreement for vaccine supply and global distribution allocation via the programme.

CEPI has committed approximately $400 million to advance early clinical development and manufacturing scale-up of the Novavax vaccine in several facilities around the world. Novavax licensed its NVX-CoV2373 technology to SII with no upfront, milestone or technology transfer payments.

For supply of NVX-CoV2373 to COVAX, Novavax is expected to supply doses primarily to high-income countries, with SII providing the majority of supply for low-, middle, and upper-middle-income countries, using a tiered pricing schedule.

Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, said the agreement brought COVAX a step closer to its goal of supplying vaccines globally and ending the acute phase of the pandemic: “It helps us close in on our goal of delivering two billion doses in 2021 and increases the range of vaccines available to us as we build a portfolio suitable for all settings and contexts.”

NVX-CoV2373 was the first vaccine to demonstrate clinical efficacy against the original strain of COVID-19 and both of the rapidly emerging variants in the UK and South Africa and is shipped in a ready-to-use liquid formulation. Because it is stable when refrigerated, existing vaccine supply chain channels can be used for its distribution.