Novavax stock jumps after COVID vaccine contract approved in Europe

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Novavax

could deliver 200 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate to the European Union once the vaccine is approved, paving the way for more pharmaceutical companies supplying vaccines in the long-term battle against Covid.

Shares of the US biotech firm jumped more than 18% early in the session after the news broke.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the bloc of 27 member countries, has agreed to purchase 100 million doses of

Novavax‘s

Covid-19 vaccine, with an option for 100 million additional doses until 2023.

Novavax said it was working to complete its submission for the shot to the European Medicines Agency in the third quarter of 2021, with delivery of the first doses scheduled to begin after approval.

“With clinical data from our trials showing high efficacy against variants of concern and variants of interest, we believe our vaccine candidate will play a critical role in efforts to control the pandemic in the EU and other regions of the world. world, ”said Stanley C. Erck, President and CEO of Novavax.

The vaccine does not rely on messenger RNA (mRNA) drug technology like those of

Modern

as good as

Pfizer

–

BioNTech,

rather being a more traditional protein-based vaccine.

Read also : Countries are preparing to offer boosters. What this means for vaccine manufacturers.

Novavax said the vaccine has shown 100% protection against moderate and severe disease, and an overall efficacy of 90.4% in phase three clinical trials in the United States and Mexico involving 30,000 adults. In a half-the-size phase three trial conducted in the UK – a focus for the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus – the vaccine had an overall efficacy of 89.7% and over 96% efficacy against the original strain of the virus.

Speaking about the deal with Novavax, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said that “as new variants of the coronavirus spread in Europe and around the world, this new contract with a company that is already testing its successful vaccine against these variants is an additional guarantee for the protection of our population.

The EU medicines regulator has already approved vaccines developed by

Pfizer

-BioNTech, Modern,

AstraZeneca

and the University of Oxford, and

Johnson & johnson.

The European Commission has secured up to 4.4 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine, with more than 540 million already delivered and negotiations underway for additional doses. As of July 29, 457.3 million doses had been administered in the EU, which has a population of almost 450 million people, with more than 70% of the adult population having received at least one dose.

Almost a year and a half since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, the battle against the coronavirus continues and has widened to include more contagious variants.

As the world settles down to deal with the coronavirus in the long term, the scope of pharmaceutical companies offering vaccines is expected to expand and demand for vaccines is expected to increase as discussions turn to booster shots.

The UK and Germany are two countries in Europe that are already preparing to offer Covid-19 booster shorts as early as next month, according to reports. This decision comes as the effectiveness of the vaccine may decrease over time. Pfizer’s own study, which was not peer reviewed, found that its shot developed with BioNTech went from 96% after seven days to 84% after four months.

The United Kingdom also announced on Wednesday its intention to extend the rollout of its vaccine to 16 and 17 year olds.

Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]