Novavax and Gavi Announce Purchase Agreement for COVAX Facility

This week, the biotechnology company Novavax has announced that it has finalized an agreement with the vaccine alliance Gavi, for purchase of its recombinant protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate to the COVAX Facility.

COVAX is worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization.

As part of the agreement, Novavax will manufacture and distribute 350 million doses of its vaccine to countries who are participating in the alliance.

Under a separate agreement, the Serum Institute of India will manufacture and deliver the balance of the 1.1 billion doses of the Novavax vaccine.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to partner with global organizations focused on accelerating equitable access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in countries where vaccination rates are currently low," President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax Stanley C. Erck, said. "This arrangement is the culmination of a collaboration among CEPI, Gavi, Serum Institute and Novavax, who are partnering in our urgent mission to deliver significant amounts of vaccines to all countries, regardless of income level. Novavax thanks CEPI for its longstanding support and tireless work with Gavi as the curators of the COVAX Facility."

Novavax and The Serum Institute plan to deliver the doses during the third quarter of 2021. Additionally, Novavax has stated that they will deliver doses if the Serum Institute cannot deliver their expected doses.

"Today's agreement with Novavax marks a major step towards COVAX's objective of building the world's largest and most diverse portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines, and a major step towards our goal of delivering 2 billion doses of safe and effective vaccines in 2021," CEO of Gavi Seth Berkley, said. "Novavax' commitment not only to support COVAX directly, but also through technology transfer via other manufacturers, shines a light on the end-to-end nature of COVAX and the kind of collaboration needed to bring this pandemic under control."