Novavax is confident COVID vaccine approval is coming

Officials at Novavax say they’re confident their COVID-19 vaccine will receive an emergency use authorization from the FDA early next month, CNBC reports.

Why it matters: The Maryland company received $1.6 billion from the federal government to speed the development of the shots early during the pandemic but has yet to make it to the U.S. market.

• Yet its protein-based COVID vaccine — which uses moth cells to produce shots — has been slowly gaining favor in the EU and the U.K.
• The biotech’s request for authorization is scheduled for a review on June 7 by a key FDA advisory committee.

Be smart: While Novavax is “fashionably late to the COVID-19 vaccine party,” as FiercePharma put it last month, it could be well-positioned as the pandemic drags 0n and questions about the durability of other vaccines remain.