The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) https://cepi.net has announced that they will invest up to an additional $384 million to accelerate the development and manufacture of Novavax’s https://novavax.com (NVX-CoV2373) vaccine candidate against COVID-19.
Novavax is a late stage biotechnology company developing next generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases. This brings CEPI’s total investment in Novavax up to $388 million and their total investment in the vaccine’s research and development up to $44.6 million.
CEPI’s expanded investment in Novavax will fund preclinical studies and Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials. The Phase 1 clinical trial will begin in May in Australia, followed by Phase 2 clinical trials which will take place in multiple countries. If the trials are successful CEPI anticipates supporting further clinical development to take NVX-CoV2373 through to licensure.
CEPI’s investment will also fund the transfer of NVX-CoV2373 technology to manufacturing partners in different geographical regions around the world for the large scale production of the vaccine.
Under the terms of the agreement between CEPI and Novavax, it is anticipated that the vaccines will be procured and allocated through global mechanisms now under discussion as part of the “Access to COVID-19 Tools” (ACT) Accelerator, which is an international initiative launched by the WHO and global leaders.
Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO, CEPI, said, “We still have a long way to go, but we’re taking important steps forward to deliver a safe, effective, and globally accessible vaccine as quickly as possible.”