On Sept. 7, 2021, Takeda Pharmaceutical announced the Government of Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare purchase of 150 million doses of Novavax vaccine candidate (TAK-019 in Japan) manufactured in Japan by Takeda subject to licensing and approval. The details of the terms and conditions of the agreement were confidential.

As part of a previously announced agreement with Novavax, Takeda was establishing the capability to manufacture TAK-019 (known outside Japan as NVX-CoV2373) at its facilities in Japan and aims to begin distribution in early calendar year 2022. Novavax was licensing and transferring manufacturing technologies to enable Takeda to manufacture the vaccine antigen and was supplying the Matrix-M ^TM adjuvant to Takeda for fill/finish together with the antigen. Takeda was responsible for the Japanese clinical trial and regulatory submission to the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) and will distribute TAK-019 in Japan should it be approved by the MHLW.