• The signed advance purchase agreement (APA) is for a commitment to purchase 350 million doses of the Novavax vaccine candidate

  • Deliveries will commence in Q3 2021, upon regulatory approval

  • Doses supply self-financing participants of the COVAX Facility as well as lower-income economies eligible for donor-funded vaccines through the Gavi COVAX Advance market Commitment (AMC)

Geneva, 6 May 2021 – Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance announced today that it had signed an advance purchase agreement with Novavax for its highly efficacious NVX-CoV2373 vaccine candidate against COVID-19. The agreement is for a commitment to purchase 350 million doses of the Novavax vaccine candidate, secured on behalf of the COVAX Facility.

Supply of the vaccine is anticipated to commence in Q3 2021, as soon as Novavax has secured the required regulatory approvals. Deliveries would then continue through the second half of the year and into 2022.

The Novavax vaccine will be used to supply both high-income and upper middle-income self-financing participants in the COVAX Facility, as well as the 92 lower-income economies eligible for donor-funded doses via the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). In order to anticipate the rising threat of variants, the agreement also contains the opportunity to access variant-adapted vaccine if this becomes necessary.

“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,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi. “Novavax’s 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.”

NVX-CoV2373 is part of the COVAX R&D portfolio, and the development and manufacturing of the vaccine have been accelerated by significant investments by COVAX co-lead the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). CEPI’s investments were directly linked to equitable access commitments which have been key to enabling this agreement, including providing COVAX with priority access to production from the CEPI-funded manufacturing network for Novavax.

“CEPI’s investments to accelerate the clinical development and manufacturing of this vaccine candidate have been critical to enabling equitable access to the vaccine through COVAX,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI. “With this agreement in place, the Novavax vaccine candidate will play a vital role in our mission to protect those most at risk from COVID-19, wherever they are in the world.”

Today’s APA follows a memorandum of understanding signed by Gavi and Novavax in February securing access to a cumulative 1.1 billion doses of the Novavax vaccine candidate. The remaining volumes will come from a purchase agreement with the Serum Institute of India (SII). In addition, Novavax has agreed to provide additional doses in the event the Serum Institute cannot materially deliver expected vaccine doses to the COVAX Facility. 

“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,” said Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax. “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 their tireless work with Gavi as the curators of the COVAX Facility.”  

The COVAX Facility portfolio, administered by Gavi, currently consists of agreements related to 8 vaccines and vaccine candidates – AstraZeneca/Oxford, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, SII-Covishield, SII-Covovax, and Sanofi/GSK. A further 7 vaccine candidates are supported by the COVAX R&D portfolio, administered by CEPI.

Notes to editors

More information on COVAX is available here.

About COVAX

COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by CEPI, Gavi and WHO – working in partnership with UNICEF and PAHO as delivery partners, developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, the World Bank, and others. It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both high-income and lower-income countries.

About Gavi’s role in COVAX

Gavi is leading on procurement and delivery at scale for COVAX: coordinating the design, implementation and administration of the COVAX Facility and the COVAX AMC and working with its Alliance partners UNICEF and WHO, along with governments, on country readiness and delivery. 

As part of this role, Gavi hosts the Office of the COVAX Facility to coordinate the operation and governance of the mechanism as a whole, manages relationships with Facility participants, and negotiates advance purchase agreements with manufacturers of promising vaccine candidates to secure doses on behalf of the 190 economies participating in the COVAX Facility. 

It also coordinates design, operation and fundraising for the COVAX AMC that supports 92 lower-income economies, including a no-fault compensation mechanism that will be administered by WHO. As part of this work, Gavi supports governments and partners on ensuring country readiness, providing funding and oversight of UNICEF procurement of vaccines as well as partners’ and governments work on readiness and delivery. This includes support for cold chain equipment, technical assistance, syringes, vehicles, and other aspects of the vastly complex logistical operation for delivery.

About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over 822 million children – and prevented more than 14 million deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 developing countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningitis and yellow fever vaccines.  After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation and reaching the unvaccinated children still being left behind, employing innovative finance and the latest technology – from drones to biometrics – to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organizations that fund Gavi’s work here.

Media Contacts

Meghana Sharafudeen
+41 79 711 5554
msharafudeen@gavi.org

Iryna Mazur
+41 79 429 3671
imazur@gavi.org

Evan O’Connell
+33 6 17 57 21 26
eoconnell@gavi.org

Laura Shevlin
+ 41 79 529 92 87
lshevlin@gavi.org

Cirũ Kariũki
ckariuki@gavi.org 

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