A Novavax vaccine against Covid-19
The French pharmaceutical group Sanofi announced on Friday a licensing agreement with the American laboratory Novavax for the joint marketing of a vaccine against COVID-19 and the development of combined vaccines against influenza and COVID-19, for a total amount which could reach 1.2 billion dollars (1.11 billion euros).
Sanofi will take a minority stake of less than 5% in Novavax, the laboratory specifies in a press release.
In a separate press release, also published Friday and devoted to its first quarter results, Novavax indicated that Sanofi would pay it $70 million for a 4.9% stake.
Under the terms of the agreement between the two groups, Novavax will be able to receive up to $1.2 billion, including an upfront payment of $500 million and up to $700 million depending on the achievement of various milestones. development, regulatory and marketing.
Novavax will also receive double-digit tiered royalties on sales of COVID-19 vaccines and combined influenza and COVID-19 vaccines made by Sanofi, the statement added.
Sanofi will record sales of Novavax’s adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine from 2025 and will cover certain research and development, regulatory and marketing expenses, specifies the group.
The agreement will allow patients to benefit from access to an adjuvanted protein-based, non-messenger RNA vaccine against COVID-19 from 2025, explains the laboratory.
Sanofi will also be solely responsible for the development and marketing of any new combined influenza and COVID-19 vaccine developed with an influenza vaccine from the group.
“The levels of hospitalizations due to influenza and COVID-19 are now closely linked. We now have the opportunity to develop combined, non-mRNA vaccines against these two infections, for greater comfort for patients and reinforced protection against these two serious respiratory viruses,” said Jean-François Toussaint, head of vaccine research and development at Sanofi.
Novavax did not benefit from the boost that the COVID-19 vaccine brought to the industry, notably thanks to the messenger RNA vaccines developed by Moderna and by the partnership between Pfizer and BioNTech, due to manufacturing problems which delayed its request for authorization.
(Writing by Diana Mandiá, with Tassilo Hummel, editing by Kate Entringer)