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Novovax (NVAX) Surges on CEPI Funding for Coronavirus Vaccine
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Shares of Novavax, Inc. (NVAX - Free Report) rose 112.6% over the past two days driven by the company’s announcement of additional funding of up to $388 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (“CEPI”). The funding is for clinical development of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, rapid scale-up of vaccine manufacturing and increased production of Novavax’s proprietary, Matrix-M adjuvant. Please note that Matrix-M adjuvant is expected to enhance immune responses of NVX-CoV2373 vaccine antigen.
In March, the CEPI awarded an initial funding of $4 million to support Novavax’s efforts to develop the vaccine candidate.
Meanwhile, the company also reported narrower-than-expected first-quarter loss on May 11.
Shares of Novovax have skyrocketed 900.5% so far this year compared with the industry’s increase of 9.2%.
The company plans to use the additional funding to advance NVX-CoV2373 development, which is currently in pre-clinical stage, to a phase I/II study. The company expects to start the phase I portion of the study in Australia later this month with top-line data expected in July. The phase II portion will be conducted in multiple countries following successful completion of the phase I portion.
NVX-CoV2373 has shown high immunogenicity in pre-clinical studies after a single immunization. Moreover, microneutralization titers, which were already high after the first dose, increased eight-fold with the second dose. Higher the microneutralization titers, more likely is the vaccine to be effective in humans.
The fund will also be utilized for scaling up the production of the vaccine candidate (both antigen and adjuvant), which will potentially allow manufacturing of up to 100 million vaccine doses by end of 2020 and more than one billion doses in 2021.
Please note that Novavax also has an agreement with Emergent BioSolutions (EBS - Free Report) related to manufacture and supply of GMP vaccine product for use in its clinical studies.
The CEPI is funding several biotechs for developing a 2019-nCoV vaccine including Moderna (MRNA - Free Report) and Inovio Pharmaceuticals. Several big players including Sanofi, Pfizer and J&J (JNJ - Free Report) have joined the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, global leaders and the World Health Organization are committed to work together to fight against COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected 4 million. Everyone collaborated to form Access to COVID-19 Tools (“ACT”) Accelerator to fast trackdevelopment of new vaccines, tests and treatments for COVID-19 as well as global equitable access to all tools to prevent, detect, treat and defeat COVID-19.
Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.
Image: Bigstock
Novovax (NVAX) Surges on CEPI Funding for Coronavirus Vaccine
Shares of Novavax, Inc. (NVAX - Free Report) rose 112.6% over the past two days driven by the company’s announcement of additional funding of up to $388 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (“CEPI”). The funding is for clinical development of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, rapid scale-up of vaccine manufacturing and increased production of Novavax’s proprietary, Matrix-M adjuvant. Please note that Matrix-M adjuvant is expected to enhance immune responses of NVX-CoV2373 vaccine antigen.
In March, the CEPI awarded an initial funding of $4 million to support Novavax’s efforts to develop the vaccine candidate.
Meanwhile, the company also reported narrower-than-expected first-quarter loss on May 11.
Shares of Novovax have skyrocketed 900.5% so far this year compared with the industry’s increase of 9.2%.
The company plans to use the additional funding to advance NVX-CoV2373 development, which is currently in pre-clinical stage, to a phase I/II study. The company expects to start the phase I portion of the study in Australia later this month with top-line data expected in July. The phase II portion will be conducted in multiple countries following successful completion of the phase I portion.
NVX-CoV2373 has shown high immunogenicity in pre-clinical studies after a single immunization. Moreover, microneutralization titers, which were already high after the first dose, increased eight-fold with the second dose. Higher the microneutralization titers, more likely is the vaccine to be effective in humans.
The fund will also be utilized for scaling up the production of the vaccine candidate (both antigen and adjuvant), which will potentially allow manufacturing of up to 100 million vaccine doses by end of 2020 and more than one billion doses in 2021.
Please note that Novavax also has an agreement with Emergent BioSolutions (EBS - Free Report) related to manufacture and supply of GMP vaccine product for use in its clinical studies.
The CEPI is funding several biotechs for developing a 2019-nCoV vaccine including Moderna (MRNA - Free Report) and Inovio Pharmaceuticals. Several big players including Sanofi, Pfizer and J&J (JNJ - Free Report) have joined the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, global leaders and the World Health Organization are committed to work together to fight against COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected 4 million. Everyone collaborated to form Access to COVID-19 Tools (“ACT”) Accelerator to fast trackdevelopment of new vaccines, tests and treatments for COVID-19 as well as global equitable access to all tools to prevent, detect, treat and defeat COVID-19.
Novavax Inc Price
Novavax Inc price | Novavax Inc Quote
Zacks Rank
Novovax is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock currently. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.
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