Novavax delivers 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidate to UK

(Reuters) – US drug developer Novavax Inc said on Friday that the UK would buy 60 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.

The company and the UK government will work together for a Phase 3 clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine in the UK population, Novavax said in a statement but did not provide financial details of the agreement.

The trial will be a study in about 9,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 85.

Novavax would partner with Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies to create the antigen component of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the UK, it added.

The company is also gearing up to deliver 100 million doses to the United States by January after it was allocated $ 1.6 billion to test and manufacture its potential vaccine in the country.

Novavax has so far received $ 2 billion in funding for its coronavirus vaccine, including $ 384 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

Novavax will deliver the NVX-CoV2373 doses to the UK starting as early as the first quarter of 2021, while Phase 3 trials are expected to begin in the third quarter of this year, the company said.

The Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies site in the UK is expected to produce around 180 million doses each year, it added.

The United States and the United Kingdom are in a hurry to make deals with drugmakers to reserve supplies of experimental coronavirus vaccines as the race to develop a safe and effective vaccine reaches the final stages of testing.

There are currently no approved vaccines for COVID-19, with more than 25 candidates being studied in humans.

In an early-stage trial, Novavax vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, produced higher levels of antibodies in healthy volunteers after two doses than those found in recovered COVID-19 patients and the vaccine was generally “well tolerated”.

(This story corrects header and first paragraph to drop reference to phase 3 trial)