Some 172 countries are engaging with the COVAX facility designed to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, the World Health Organization said, but more funding is needed and countries need now to make binding commitments.
Novavax Inc. said South Korea’s SK bioscience would manufacture a component of the U.S. drug developer’s experimental coronavirus vaccine in a bid to boost the clinical-stage biotechnology company’s supply.
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) plans to have two or three manufacturing plants for each vaccine, James Robinson, a longtime biopharma executive leading CEPI’S vast manufacturing push, said in an interview.
Maryland-based Novavax snagged $384 in additional grant funding to advance the company’s vaccine candidate against COVID-19.
A global coalition set up to fight emerging epidemics struck a $31 million deal with scientists at Japan’s University of Tokyo to speed up work on a vaccine against a brain-damaging disease caused by the Nipah virus.
A global coalition set up during 2017 to fight epidemics has struck a $25 million deal with two U.S. biotech companies to accelerate work on a vaccine against the brain-damaging Nipah virus that has killed 12 people in India.