New COVID Vaccine From Montgomery County Company Awaits Approval, Has Protein Base

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Gaithersburg-based Novavax, Inc., a biotechnology company that creates next generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, will provide the U.S. Government with 3.2 million doses of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine if it receives U.S. Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization and a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Novavax's protein-based vaccine will be made available for free to states, jurisdictions, federal pharmacy partners and federally qualified health centers.

"We are pleased to come one step closer to potentially offering our vaccine to physicians, healthcare organizations and consumers who have been awaiting a protein-based vaccine option," Stanley C. Erck, president and chief executive officer of Novavax.

The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine was created using Novavax' recombinant nanoparticle technology to generate antigen derived from the coronavirus spike protein and is formulated with Novavax' patented saponin-based Matrix- adjuvant to enhance the immune response. The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine contains purified protein antigen and can neither replicate, nor can it cause COVID-19, according to a press release from the company.

The vaccine was engineered from the genetic sequence of the first strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease.