On Aug. 17, 2020, Novavax announced the beginning of a Phase 2b clinical trial in South Africa to evaluate the efficacy of NVX-CoV2373, Novavax COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Dr. Shabir Madhi, Professor of Vaccinology at Wits University, lead the clinical trial, which was supported in part by a $15 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

NVX-CoV2373 is a stable, prefusion protein made using Novavax proprietary nanoparticle technology and includes Novavax proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant.