On May 6, 2021, Novavax announced that it had finalized an advance purchase agreement (APA) with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) for supply of its recombinant protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate to the COVAX Facility.  Novavax was expected to manufacture and distribute 350 million doses of NVX-CoV2373 to countries participating under the COVAX Facility, which was established to allocate and distribute vaccines equitably to participating countries and economies. Under a separate purchase agreement with Gavi, the Serum Institute of India (Serum Institute) was expected to manufacture and deliver the balance of the 1.1 billion doses of Novavax’ vaccine.

Under the APA, Novavax expects to deliver doses with antigen and adjuvant manufactured at facilities directly funded by the investments Novavax received from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). CEPI invested nearly $400 million in Novavax in the spring of 2020 to advance preclinical and early clinical development, manufacturing scale-up, technology transfer, and manufacturing capacity reservation for NVX-CoV2373.

Together, Novavax and Serum Institute expect to initiate delivery of the cumulative 1.1 billion doses in the third quarter of 2021, pending receipt of appropriate regulatory authorizations. Under the APA, Novavax will receive an upfront payment from Gavi later this month and an additional payment after it secures Emergency Use Listing for its vaccine by the WHO. In addition, Novavax has agreed to provide additional doses in the event that Serum Institute cannot materially deliver expected vaccine doses to the COVAX Facility.