Novavax stock dropped nearly a quarter of its value on Wednesday after a report indicated the pharmaceutical firm was having trouble producing a COVID-19 vaccine that passed regulators' quality criteria.
In premarket trade, the stock dropped 24%.
Novavax, located in Maryland, produces a COVID-19 vaccine that, according to a major clinical study, was 90.4 % effective in avoiding symptomatic illness in adults. However, the firm, which has never had a vaccine approved, has had several delays in researching and manufacturing its vaccine.
A new report casts more doubt on the Novavax vaccine's efficacy. Politico reported that Novavax's procedures for testing the purity of its vaccine fell short of regulators' expectations, citing numerous sources familiar with the company's problems.
Novavax earlier stated that it will distribute around 1.1 billion doses of the vaccine to poorer countries through COVAX, the world's major initiative to supply COVID-19 vaccinations to developing countries. COVAX's ambitions to vaccine vast swathes of the emerging globe might be hampered by delays.
In 2020, the United States government committed $1.6 billion to Novavax in the aim of making it a top COVID-19 vaccine provider.
