Novanax, a global company advancing protein-based vaccines with its Matrix-M™ adjuvant, has officially announced a co-exclusive licensing agreement with Sanofi. Under the agreed terms, the partners will focus on co-commercializing Novavax’s current stand-alone adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine worldwide (except in countries with existing Advance Purchase Agreements and in India, Japan and South Korea where Novavax has existing partnership agreements). This involves a sole permission for Novavax’s adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine to be used in combination with Sanofi’s flu vaccines. The terms in place also ensure that Novavax retains the right to its own COVID-19-Influenza Combination vaccine candidate, which is currently in development. They further present a non-exclusive license to Novavax’s adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine for a combined use case with non-flu vaccines. Not just that, the whole arrangement also involves a non-exclusive license to use the company’s Matrix-M adjuvant in vaccine products. Talk about the given value proposition on a slightly deeper level, we begin from the fact that, in order to facilitate the proceedings, Novavax will receive an upfront payment of $500 million. It is further expected to receive upto $700 million in development regulatory and launch milestones, making up a potential total of around $1.2 billion.
Starting from 2025, Sanofi will book sales of Novavax’s adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine, and at the same time, it will also take up the responsibility of bearing certain R&D, regulatory and commercial expenses.
“With flu and COVID-19 hospital admission rates now closely mirroring each other, we have an opportunity to develop non-mRNA flu-COVID-19 combination vaccines, offering patients both enhanced convenience and protection against two serious respiratory viruses,” said Jean-Francois Toussaint, Global Head of Vaccines R&D at Sanofi. “We’re excited by the prospect of combining Novavax’s adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine that has shown high efficacy and favorable tolerability, with our rich portfolio of differentiated flu vaccines that have demonstrated superior protection against flu and its serious complications.”
Hold on, there is more, considering we still haven’t acknowledged that Sanofi will be solely responsible for development and commercialization of any novel flu-COVID-19 combination vaccine containing a Sanofi flu vaccine. In fact, if we look outside the context of this partnership, each party will have complete liberty to develop and commercialize their own COVID-19-Influenza combination vaccines and adjuvanted products at their own cost. Coming back to the expected cash windfall for Novavax, the company is also, markedly enough, owed mid-single digit royalties for each additional Sanofi vaccine product developed under a non-exclusive license with Novavax’s Matrix-M adjuvant technology. In exchange, Sanofi will receive a 5% minority stake in Novavax.
“This collaboration is important for Novavax and for global public health. Our new partnership combines Novavax’s proprietary recombinant protein and nanoparticle technologies, Matrix™ adjuvant and R&D expertise with Sanofi’s world-class leadership in launching and commercializing innovative vaccines. Together, we can broaden access to both our COVID-19 vaccine and our adjuvant to ensure more individuals can benefit from the protection vaccines can provide,” said John C. Jacobs, President and Chief Executive Officer at Novavax. “Novavax is now in a stronger position to refocus our efforts on leveraging our technology platform and novel adjuvant in R&D and pipeline expansion.