Novavax Tumbles On Reports Of Underdelivering COVID-19 Vaccine Commitments

Novavax, Inc. NVAX shares are tumbling Tuesday on a negative headline concerning the Maryland-based biopharma's COVID-19 vaccine.

What Happened: Novavax delivered around 10 million vaccine doses thus far as against the target of 2 billion doses for 2022, Reuters reported.

The company has delayed first-quarter shipments to Europe and low-income countries such as Philippines, the report said, citing public officials in their government's vaccine rollouts. Novavax is yet to begin delivering to COVAX, with which it has the biggest contract for delivering 1.1 billion doses of vaccine, it added.

Novavax told Reuters it expects to deliver 80 million vaccines doses to COVAX in the first quarter. The company said it's moving as quickly as possible to ship the supplies contracted for the first quarter, the report added.

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Shipments have been delayed due to regulatory processes and are waiting in a distribution warehouse to go to healthcare providers, Reuters said, citing a Novavax spokesperson.

The delivery delays reportedly have forced at least one country reconsidering its orders with Novavax.

In response to Benzinga's enquiry, a Novavax spokesperson said it's working with regulators and its partners to facilitate release testing.

"We will have a total of up to 150 million doses available from our entire manufacturing network that has started in January. We will work diligently, in concert with regulatory authorities and our partners, to expedite the final steps to get our vaccine to the public," the spokesperson said.

Why It's Important: Novavax's COVID vaccine was inordinately delayed due to manufacturing issues, even as early movers, including Pfizer, Inc. PFE-BioNTech SE BNTX and Moderna, Inc. MRNA, reaped rich returns from their respective vaccine programs.

The World Health Organization, European Union, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Australia have all conditionally authorized the vaccine candidate. The two-dose COVID vaccine to be administered a month apart, however, is yet to receive authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

NVAX Price Action: Novavax shares were slumping 12% to $83.81