Shares in Poland's Mabion surge on Novavax vaccine programme deal

Mabion SA

03/03/2021 09:32

WARSAW, March 3 (Reuters) - Shares in Mabion  MABP.WA , a
Polish biotechnology company, jumped by over 60% on Wednesday
morning after it announced a framework cooperation deal with
U.S. vaccine developer Novavax  NVAX.O  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  PFE.N , Moderna and AstraZeneca  AZN.L . Like in other
EU countries, the programme has been hampered by delays in
deliveries. 
    



($1 = 3.7533 zlotys)

 (Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko, editing by Louise Heavens)
 ((agnieszka.barteczko@thomsonreuters.com; +48226539700; Reuters
Messaging: agnieszka.barteczko.reuters.com@thomsonreuters.net))