August 7, 2020 -- Novavax and Takeda Pharmaceutical have formed a partnership for the development, manufacturing, and commercialization in Japan of NVX-CoV2373, Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
The vaccine is made with prefusion protein using Novavax's recombinant protein nanoparticle technology and Novavax's proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant. The companies are partnering on manufacturing, clinical development, and regulatory activities in Japan. Novavax will license and transfer manufacturing technologies to Takeda and will supply Takeda with the Matrix-M adjuvant. Takeda will be responsible for regulatory submission to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) and will produce and distribute NVX-CoV2373 in Japan.
Novavax is entitled to receive payments based on the achievement of certain development and commercial milestones, in addition to a portion of the proceeds from the vaccine.
Takeda will receive funding from the government of Japan to support the technology transfer, establishment of infrastructure, and scale-up of manufacturing of the vaccine candidate. Takeda anticipates that it will be able to manufacture more than 250 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine per year.