Shares in Mabion, a Polish biotechnology company, jumped by over 89% on Wednesday after it announced a framework cooperation deal with U.S. vaccine developer Novavax on COVID-19 vaccination technology.
“We look forward to a close cooperation with Novavax, which may pave the way for commercial scale production, provided that technology transfer and technical batch are successfully completed”, Mabion Chief executive Dirk Kreder said in a statement.
Under the terms of the agreement, Mabion and Novavax will work together to transfer technology for the production of a technical batch of NVX-CoV2373.
Mabion said it expected the technology transfer and verification to complete by the middle of 2021.
“Upon successful completion, Mabion’s manufacturing facility could become a part of the supply chain for commercial production of Novavax’s adjuvanted protein-based vaccine candidate,” Mabion said in a statement.
By 0920 GMT shares in Mabion were up 42.2% at 44.5 zlotys, valuing the company at around 611 million zlotys ($162.79 million).
Mabion was established in 2007 by four Polish pharmaceutical companies – Celon Pharma, Polfarmex, IBSS Krakow and Genexo.
Poland, with a population of around 38 million, has up to date inoculated over 3 million people, mostly with vaccines by Pfeizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. Like in other EU countries, the programme has been hampered by delays in deliveries.
Source: Bloomberg