(Corrects fourth paragraph to show upfront payment is separate from payment upon positive data)
BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s Clover Biopharmaceuticals announced on Wednesday an advance purchase agreement to supply up to 414 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate through the global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX.
The firm said it will supply an initial 64 million doses this year, pending an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization (WHO) of its vaccine candidate.
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), which leads the COVAX scheme alongside the WHO, has options for an additional 350 million doses in 2022, Clover said.
In exchange for the supply, Clover will receive an upfront payment, another payment upon positive Phase II/III trial data on the candidate, and additional payments if GAVI chooses to buy doses for 2022 deliveries, all of unspecified sizes.
The candidate entered a global large-scale trial in March and contains an effect-boosting adjuvant provided by Dynavax.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo, editing by Louise Heavens)
