REFILE-EU close to sealing supply deal with Novavax for COVID-19 vaccines - sources
BRUSSELS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The European Union could sign asupply deal with Novavax this week or next for the U.S.company's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, two EU officials involvedin the talks with the firm said.
The EU concluded in December preliminary negotiations withNovavax for the supply of 100 million doses and an option foranother 100 million.
"Talks with Novavax have intensified and we aim to agree thecontract this week or next," one EU official said.
A second EU official, involved in talks, confirmed thatpossible timetable for a deal, but added that discussions withthe company's lawyers were still underway, declining toelaborate on what were the outstanding issues.
Last week Europe's drug regulator said it had launched areal-time review of Novavax's vaccine to speed up potentialapprovals.
The vaccine is still being trialled, but preliminary datashowed the vaccine was 89.3% effective in preventing COVID-19 ina trial conducted in the United Kingdom, and was nearly aseffective in protecting against the more highly contagiousvariant first discovered in the UK.
The possible deal with Novavax would be the seventh sealedby the EU with vaccine makers for the supply of COVID-19 shots.It already has agreements with AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson,Pfizer-BioNTech, CureVac, Moderna and Sanofi-GSK for a total ofabout 2.3 billion doses.(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascioEditing by Susan Fenton)
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