Polish firm Mabion has announced a 1.5 billion zloty contract with Novavax to become the first in Poland to produce antigens for a coronavirus vaccine.
“The use of Mabion’s expertise and production capabilities as part of the global Novavax chain significantly expands our capabilities in terms of ensuring wide access to our vaccines,” said Rick Crowley, the US firm’s chief operations officer.
Maryland-based Novavax has been developing a coronavirus vaccine since early last year. It has this year announced agreements with, among others, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Commission to purchase doses once they receive regulatory approval.
Mabion zawarł umowę z Novavax. Będzie produkował szczepionki na Covid-19 https://t.co/PbDFt906Oo
— gazetaprawna.pl (@gazetaprawnapl) October 8, 2021
In March, Mabion signed a preliminary agreement with Novavax to obtain its COVID-19 vaccine technology and begin commercial-scale production trials. The deal was supported by the Polish Development Fund (PFR), a state-owned financial group.
Its new contract, signed on Friday, is for four years of commercial-scale production and is worth 1.46 billion zloty ($372 million, €318 million), reports Puls Biznesu, a Polish business newspaper. Production will begin in December this year, according to StockWatch.pl, which noted that Mabion’s shares rose 18% ahead of the news.
“We are proud that we can use our capabilities in the production of biological drugs to efficiently and effectively start antigen production as part of cooperation with Novavax,” said Mabion’s CEO, Krzysztof Kaczmarczyk.
The Polish firm will be part of a global Novavax production chain that includes facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. In August this year, Novavax announced an agreement with the European Commission to purchase up to 200 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine.
Main image credit: Maryland GovPics/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
