Novavax buys Praha Vaccines for $167 million to boost COVID-19 vaccine production

(Reuters) – Drug developer Novavax Inc on Wednesday acquired Praha Vaccines, a unit of India’s Cyrus Poonawalla Group, for about $167 million as it looks to boost capacity to produce its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The acquisition includes a biologics manufacturing facility in Czech Republic, the company said, adding that the facility is expected to provide an annual capacity of over 1 billion doses of antigen starting in 2021 for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVXCoV2373.

(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)