United Biomedical’s nonprofit vaccine subsidiary, Covaxx, said it has secured supply deals worth $2.8 billion for more than 140 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, UB-612, in “multiple countries,” including Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.

Not among the current frontrunners in the race for an approved vaccine, the New York-based consortium plans to start phase 2/3 clinical trials of UB-612 by the end of this year or early next year in Latin America, Asia and the U.S., and says it will produce 1 billion doses of the vaccine by the end of 2021.

A synthetic peptide-based vaccine, UB-612 is designed to activate B- and T-cells in the immune system and to induce neutralizing antibodies against the coronavirus. The vaccine can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures of 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit (2 to 8 degrees Celsius).