Gema Maldonado (Uppsala, Sweden)
At the Novavax plant in the Swedish city of Uppsala, where it manufactures Matrix-M, the adjuvant for its Covid-19 vaccine and the new malaria vaccine approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Vice President of Market Access and Customer Engagement at Novavax in Europe, Jörgen Perssonhas granted an interview to Sanity in which he warns of “the two risks” What it means to have a single supplier of Covid-19 vaccines in the European market. Currently, the European Commission only maintains an agreement with Pfizer/Biontech. Persson explains to Sanity that talks within the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) for the supply of the Novavax vaccine adapted to the XBB 1.5 subvariant “are in progress”as with the member states, including Spain.
The European Commission has approved the Novavax vaccine adapted to the new Ómicron subvariants. It is the only protein without adapted mRNA that has approval. Are you negotiating with Europe a centralized purchase of this new vaccine?
We are not facing the same type of contract that was made during the pandemic with the European Commission, we now work with the new group formed in the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). We are investigating whether member states are interested in joining a centralized purchase. These are conversations that are currently ongoing.
“We are in conversations with state governments and we see that there is a very high interest on their part to be sure of having a diverse portfolio of vaccines”
The recommendation of most countries’ vaccine groups is to have a diverse portfolio of vaccines. We are in conversations with the state governments and we see that there is a very high interest on their part to be sure of having that diverse portfolio of vaccines, so we are looking with countries like Germany, France and others, the best way to ensure that they have the entire portfolio of vaccines that should be available to meet the specific needs of each one with each vaccine.
Do you hope to close agreements with member states before the end of the year?
Through the APA [siglas en inglés de contrato de compra anticipada] With the European Commission we have certain agreements and deliveries to make, so this year 2023 agreements have already been made, some countries have also contacted us so that we could make additional deliveries of vaccines during this year. We are now discussing how to manage next year. Each government has to decide whether it would include it [la vacuna de Novavax] in their bidding process, so these discussions are also ongoing internally, within each government.
“At Novavax we have had contacts with the Government of Spain, conversations are ongoing”
Have you had any contact with the Spanish Government for the purchase and supply of the vaccine adapted to Spain?
Yes, we have had them
And have they reached any agreement?
This is a dialogue, because the governments themselves want to make decisions about how they should manage Covid vaccines in the future. They also discuss with vaccine producers so that they can provide information on what would be, from our perspective, the best solution, and then make a decision. So conversations are ongoing with them.
At the moment it seems difficult to compete with Pfizer, which is the only company with which the European Commission currently has an agreement regarding the vaccine. What sales forecasts for the adapted vaccine do you have in the European market?We have had many conversations with different markets because they are also interested in having a diverse portfolio of vaccines. Having a single supplier on the market creates two risks: one of them is that patients who do not want that version will not be able to get vaccinated. The second risk is that having a single supplier can result in out-of-stocks. Therefore, many countries have invited us to dialogue to ensure that there is a diversified vaccine portfolio.
“The first risk of having a single vaccine supplier is that patients who do not want that version cannot be vaccinated and the second is that it may result in stocks running out.”
Are there other pathogens that Novavax is interested in developing vaccines for in the future?
Yes, our next step from a pipeline standpoint is the combination vaccine. That is, Covid and flu together in one injection. The objective is to carry out phase three of trials next year and market it in 2026 in some markets. We also have different collaborations with the Matrix-M adjuvant in other vaccines. There is a lot of work to do and in many different areas.
2023-11-19 18:07:08
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