Benzinga | Nov 17, 2021 09:27AM EST

Novavax Confirms European Medicines Agency Review Of COVID-19 Vaccine Filing For Conditional Marketing Authorization

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX), a biotechnology company dedicated to developing and commercializing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, today announced that European Medicines Agency (EMA) has begun its evaluation of an application for conditional marketing authorization (CMA) for Novavax' COVID-19 vaccine, which will be marketed in the European Union under the brand name Nuvaxovid(tm). EMA's statement may be found here.

"Today's announcement from EMA brings Novavax another step closer to our goal of ensuring broad global access to our protein-based COVID-19 vaccine across Europe," said Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax. "Novavax looks forward to providing an additional vaccine option in Europe, built on a proven, well-understood technology platform, and thanks the European Commission for its ongoing partnership and confidence in our COVID-19 program."

The company announced earlier this month that it had completed the submission of all data and modules required by EMA for regulatory evaluation of NVX-CoV2373, Novavax' recombinant nanoparticle protein-based COVID-19 vaccine with Matrix-M(tm) adjuvant. EMA has indicated that its assessment will proceed under an accelerated timeline, with an opinion issued potentially within weeks.

The chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) data package submitted to EMA and other global regulatory agencies leverages Novavax' manufacturing partnership with the Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SII), the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume. It will later be supplemented with data from additional manufacturing sites in Novavax' global supply chain.

The Novavax/SII vaccine has recently received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in Indonesia and the Philippines, and the companies have also filed for emergency authorization in India and for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) with the World Health Organization (WHO). Novavax also announced regulatory filings for its vaccine in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and with the WHO. Additionally, Novavax and SK bioscience announced a Biologics License Application (BLA) submission to MFDS in South Korea. Novavax expects to submit the complete package to the U.S. FDA by the end of the year. The brand name NuvaxovidTM has not been authorized by the U.S. FDA.