Nuvaxovid COVID-19 vaccine approval in Japan helps Novavax further expand in Asia, says GlobalData

American biotech company Novavax, together with Japan-based Takeda, has secured Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) approval for its recombinant, adjuvanted virus-like particle COVID-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid. With this move, Novavax continues its expansion in Asia through local partners, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center, Japan has fully vaccinated 80% of its population, with more than 269 million vaccine doses administered as of 25 April April 2022.

Novavax’s Nuvaxovid is the fourth vaccine to be approved in Japan. The country has earlier approved Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. But notably, Japan is still far from getting its first home-grown vaccine.

Prashant Khadayate, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “GlobalData consensus forecast predicts that Takeda could generate sales of US$943m through supplying Nuvaxovid in Japan in 2022.”

Takeda has an agreement with the Japanese government to supply 150 million doses of Nuvaxovid. Similarly, Novavax has partnered with leading local players within Asia such as Serum Institute of India for India, Indonesia and the Philippines, and SK bioscience for South Korea.

Japan is still reporting a 7-day average of more than 40,000 cases per day. Hence, COVID-19 is still highly unpredictable though most COVID-19 infections are now mild.

Khadayate concludes: “Forging strong local partnerships can provide Novavax to scale up manufacturing and commercialization abilities to fulfill government orders from various countries. In addition, Japanese approval helps fulfill Novavax existing vaccine supply contracts with the Japanese government. However, based on its local reputation, Takeda can play a key role in getting government supply orders for Nuvaxovid in the future.”

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