Novavax Inc said on Monday it had sent Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a written notice to immediately end its agreement to sell the company’s vaccine against COVID-19 to low- and middle-income countries.
The company cited Gavi’s failure to purchase the 350 million doses it agreed to buy last May for the COVAX facility.
The COVAX facility is a joint program of Gavi, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Innovation in Epidemic Preparedness to equitably distribute COVID vaccines in poor countries.
The suspension did not result in any fines, the company said.
Novavax received a non-refundable upfront payment of $350 million from Gavi last year and another $350 million this year after the vaccine was placed on the WHO’s emergency use list, the company said.
Novavax also has a contract with the Serum Institute of India to manufacture a Covovax-branded version of the vaccine, which will also be supplied to the COVAX plant.
Serum Institute was expected to manufacture and sell about 750 million doses of Covovax.
Novavax and Serum Institute were not immediately available to comment on whether the deal had been canceled.
The announcement comes amid low demand for the company’s vaccines amid a glut of global COVID-19 vaccine supply and declining demand.
Earlier this month, the company cut its full-year forecast once again, hit by late vaccine approvals around the world.
The Covovax and Serum vaccines became the ninth and tenth vaccines, respectively, to enter the WHO emergency list.
Gavi was not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.
