(Reuters) – COVID-19 vaccine maker Novavax stated on Wednesday it’ll promote its manufacturing facility in Czech Republic to Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk for $200 million and use the proceeds for its vaccine pipeline.
The corporate has struggled to maintain tempo with rival vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer, which reported greater than $3 billion in mixed gross sales for his or her mRNA COVID-19 photographs within the third quarter. It had additionally raised doubts about its skill to remain in enterprise in 2023.
The divestiture of the Czech facility follows U.S.-based Novavax’s licensing deal value not less than $1.2 billion with French drugmaker Sanofi for its COVID-19 vaccine, in change for the latter taking an almost 5% stake within the agency.
Novavax shares have risen about 88% because the Sanofi deal in Might.
“The choice to promote the Czech Republic manufacturing facility aligns with our beforehand introduced dedication to evolve Novavax right into a extra lean and agile group targeted on partnering our pipeline property and know-how platform,” CEO John Jacobs stated in a press release.
The corporate expects the sale of the unit to lead to annual working value reductions of about $80 million.
Novo Nordisk didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark.
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Modifying by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan)
