Israel signs deal with Novavax for COVID vaccine, health ministry says

Reuters
Updated ·1 min read
FILE PHOTO: Illustration of COVID-19 vaccine vial

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel has signed a deal to buy 5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from Novavax, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

The vaccines are due to arrive in Israel in the coming months, pending regulatory approval. Financial details of the deal, which includes the option for an additional 5 million doses, were not disclosed.

Novavax's protein-based vaccine will be administered in two doses and has been found effective against a number of variants, the ministry said. It will be an alternative for those who do not want a vaccine that uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

Mostly Israelis have received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine or other vaccines that use mRNA to spur an immune response.

The ministry said Novavax's vaccine has been approved by regulators in Europe and is still being examined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

(Reporting by Ari RabinovitchEditing by David Goodman)