No­var­tis jumps in­to Covid-19 vac­cine hunt, as Big Phar­ma and big biotech com­mit to bil­lions of dos­es

Af­ter spend­ing most of the pan­dem­ic on the side­lines, No­var­tis is of­fer­ing its aid in the race to de­vel­op a Covid-19 vac­cine.

AveX­is, the Swiss phar­ma’s gene ther­a­py sub­sidiary, has agreed to man­u­fac­ture the vac­cine be­ing de­vel­oped by Mass­a­chu­setts Eye and Ear and Mass­a­chu­setts Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. The biotech will be­gin man­u­fac­tur­ing this month, while the vac­cine un­der­goes fur­ther pre­clin­i­cal test­ing. They’ve agreed to pro­vide the vac­cine for free for clin­i­cal tri­als be­gin­ning in the sec­ond half of 2020, but have not dis­closed fi­nan­cials for af­ter.

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