U.S. vaccine company Novavax, Inc. says it has finalized an in-principle deal with Canada to provide the country with 76 million doses of its candidate COVID-19 drug.
Novavax expects to finalize the deal around the second quarter of next year if the vaccine is proven safe and effective and approved by Health Canada, the company said.
The agreement will give Canadians access to "a promising" potential treatment to fight the virus, Minister of Public Services and Procurement Anita Anand said. Novavax chief executive officer Stanley Erck said it was happy to collaborate with the Canadian government.
The deal is an important step to guarantee broad access to the company's drug candidate, Erck said, as it pushed forward with more trials in the quest to produce a treatment "to protect the world."
The U.S. government approved funding of $1.6 billion for Novavax vaccine studies and development. Currently in second-stage tests to evaluate its immunogenicity, the U.S. will be given priority once the first 100 million doses become available.
The Maryland-based biotechnology group already has agreements to provide around 100 million shots to the U.S. and some 60 million to Britain. The company has already signed vaccine delivery contracts with Japan and India. Its two agreements follow separate arrangements with Moderna and Pfizer.
Novavax started its second-stage clinical trials in South Africa last month. Third-stage testing could start as early as October, it said.
The accord is the latest by countries, wealthy Western ones in particular, in a scramble to secure doses of badly needed medications against the virus which has sickened more than 25 million people internationally and claimed the lives of at least 846,900 people, figures from Johns Hopkins University showed.
