On Aug. 13, 2020, Dynavax Technologies announced a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of $3.4 million to scale up production batch size to allow for increased capacity of Dynavax’s CpG 1018 advanced adjuvant to support the global COVID-19 response. These efforts will support capacity of up to 750 million adjuvant doses annually, which can be further increased if needed.

An adjuvant is a pharmacological or immunological agent that modifies the effect of other agents. Adjuvants are added to a vaccine to boost the immune response to produce more antibodies and longer-lasting immunity, thus minimizing the dose of antigen needed. Adjuvants may also be used to enhance the efficacy of a vaccine by helping to modify the immune response by particular types of immune system cells.

About CpG 1018 AdjuvantCpG 1018 is the adjuvant used inHEPLISAV-B® [Hepatitis B Vaccine (Recombinant), Adjuvanted], an adult hepatitis B vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dynavax developed CpG 1018 to provide an increased vaccine immune response, which has been demonstrated in HEPLISAV-B. CpG 1018 provides a well- developed technology and a significant safety database, potentially accelerating the development and large-scale manufacturing of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Dynavax is a commercial stage biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing novel vaccines. The Company launched its first commercial product, HEPLISAV-B® [Hepatitis B Vaccine (Recombinant), Adjuvanted], in February 2018, following U.S. FDA approval for prevention of infection caused by all known subtypes of hepatitis B virus in adults age 18 years and older. Dynavax is also further developing CpG 1018 as an advanced vaccine adjuvant through research collaborations and partnerships. Current collaborations are focused on adjuvanted vaccines for COVID-19 and pertussis.

The Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (and COVID-19 Disease) SARS-CoV-2 is a new coronavirus identified in late 2019 which belongs to a family of enveloped RNA viruses that include MERS and SARS, both of which caused serious human infections of the respiratory system. The virus causes a disease named COVID-19. Since this outbreak was first reported in late 2019, the virus has infected over 19.9 million people and has caused over 732,000 reported deaths (as of August 11, 2020). It has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently there is no vaccine available for COVID-19.