CEPI Gives Novavax $384 Million to Develop COVID-19 Vaccine

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is giving Novavax an additional $384 million for development of its COVID-19 vaccine.

The funding will go toward phase 1 and 2 studies, as well as the ramping up of manufacturing to produce up to 100 million doses by the end of the year. CEPI invested $4 million in the vaccine candidate in March.

Phase 1 trials of the vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, are expected to begin this month in Australia, with preliminary results expected in July.

Novavax will also use the funding to scale up production of an adjuvant it plans to use for the vaccine.

The company said it hopes to create capacity to produce over 1 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021. — Jordan Williams