Novavax, Takeda To Develop Novavax' COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate In Japan - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Biotechnology company Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) and Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (TAK) announced Friday a partnership for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of Novavax' COVID-19 vaccine candidate NVX-CoV2373 in Japan.

NVX-CoV2373 is a stable, prefusion protein made using Novavax' recombinant protein nanoparticle technology and includes Novavax' proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant. The vaccine candidate is engineered from the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2.

Novavax will license and transfer manufacturing technologies to enable Takeda to manufacture the vaccine antigen and will supply the Matrix-M adjuvant to Takeda.

Takeda will be responsible for regulatory submission to the MHLW and will produce and distribute NVX-CoV2373 in Japan. It anticipates the capacity to manufacture over 250 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine per year.

Meanwhile, Novavax will be entitled to receive payments based on the achievement of certain development and commercial milestones, as well as a portion of proceeds from the vaccine.

Takeda will receive funding from the Government of Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) to support the technology transfer, establishment of infrastructure and scale-up of manufacturing.