Clover Biopharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage Chinese biotech developing novel vaccines and biologic therapeutic candidates to address the world's most life-threatening diseases and public health threats, announced on Wednesday an advance purchase agreement with Gavi, or the Vaccine Alliance.
According to the agreement, the company is to provide up to 414 million doses of its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate for procurement through the COVAX facility. COVAX is a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines that includes more than 190 participating economies.
Pending an Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization for Clover's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Clover will make an initial 64 million doses available for procurement through the COVAX facility in 2021. Gavi also retains options to procure up to an additional 350 million doses to be delivered in 2022. The agreement also contains the opportunity to access Clover variant-adapted COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
In exchange for these commitments, Clover will receive a significant upfront payment, a payment upon positive Phase-2/3 data, and additional advance payments upon Gavi's exercise of options for doses to be delivered in 2022.
Gavi will allocate Clover's COVID-19 vaccine doses to the AMC (Advanced Market Commitment)-eligible and self-financing participants under a tiered pricing plan. Clover will further receive additional payments upon the delivery of the doses of its COVID-19 vaccine at all pricing tiers, including doses being delivered to the AMC-eligible participants.
Joshua Liang, CEO of Clover Biopharmaceuticals, said the company is grateful for the support from Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and other COVAX partners in the joint pursuit of supporting global equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines and helping protect at-risk groups in participating countries.
"The pandemic continues to have a profound impact on the world, and we remain dedicated to expediting the availability of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate for procurement and global distribution," Liang said.
"The pandemic continues to evolve, and in order to be best prepared, COVAX's actively managed, diverse portfolio will be critical to meeting countries' needs, and protecting against risks such as regulatory delays, variant and supply constraints," said Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi.
