The UK government agrees on COVID-19 vaccine deals with Novavax and Johnson & Johnson

The UK government has agreed on deals with both Novavax and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for early access to their COVID-19 vaccine candidates. The deals include thirty-million doses of J&J’s vaccine, Ad26.COV2.s, as well as sixty-million doses of Novavax’s vaccine, NVX-CoV2373.

The UK will co-fund a Phase III clinical trial of J&J’s vaccine, as part of the deal, which will assess a two-dose regimen of the vaccine. The study will run in correspondence with a separate Phase III study examining the single-dose regimen of Ad26.COV2.S. The deal will also provide an additional option for the UK to purchase up to 22 million extra doses.

A Phase I/IIa human trial of the vaccine has commenced in Belgium and the US, by J&J, which is assessing both one and two-dose regimens of the vaccine in more than one-thousand healthy adults aged eighteen to fifty-five years old, and adults aged sixty-five plus.

The UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) will help Novavax conduct a Phase III clinical trial for their vaccine candidate. Furthermore, Novavax has partnered with FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies to manufacture specific components of the vaccine in the UK.

If both vaccines demonstrate useful in late-stage trials, they could be delivered to the UK in mid-2021, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Alok Sharma, Business Secretary, stated: “The government’s strategy to build a portfolio of promising vaccine candidates will ensure we have the best possible chance of finding one that works. Today’s agreements will not only benefit people in the UK but will ensure fair and equitable access to a vaccine around the world, potentially protecting hundreds of millions of lives.”