Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) announced on Thursday evening that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded it a contract to supply a large quantity of its vaccine candidate NVX-CoV2373 to the military. The biotech is currently in the phase 1 stage of clinical trials evaluating the vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The Department of Defense will provide Novavax up to $60 million to support the domestic manufacture of several components of the experimental COVID-19 vaccine. In return, Novavax will supply 10 million doses of NVX-CoV2373 to the DoD this year. These doses could be used in phase 2/3 clinical trials, but could also be administered to military personnel and their families if the Food and Drug Administration grants the vaccine candidate an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

The contract requires Novavax to work with a U.S.-based biologics contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) to produce the antigen used in NVX-CoV2373. Novavax will also work with U.S.-based CDMOs to manufacture its proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant, which will be administered with NVX-CoV2373. Adjuvants are additives designed to enhance vaccines' effectiveness by increasing the immune response they generate.

Novavax initiated a phase 1 clinical study of NVX-CoV2373 on May 26. The biotech anticipates reporting preliminary results from this study in July. If those results are positive, Novavax intends to quickly advance the COVID-19 vaccine candidate into phase 2 testing.

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