The American biotechnology company Novavax has acquired Praha Vaccines, a company that owns a vaccine production facility the southeast of Prague in the village of Jevany. The owner of the facility was the Indian company Serum Institute, which is part of the Cyrus Poonawalla Group. The sale price for the deal, which includes the company’s entire staff, was USD 167m. “Production capacity is an important part of the strategy for bringing a vaccine against Covid-19 to market,” said Novavax CEO Stanley Erck. “Through this acquisition we’ve gained an important asset that will enable us to produce more than 1 billion doses annually.” Idnes.cz reports that the company hopes to begin producing a vaccine before the end of the year and is making investments despite the lack of certainty that its vaccine will be approved.
