Novavax's Strategy Across Commercial, R&D, and Partnerships

In January of this year, Novavax announced a partnership that would provide its Matrix-M adjuvant technology to Pfizer for use in vaccine development. Pfizer reportedly paid an upfront total of $30 million, with an additional $500 million agreed upon based on development and commercial milestones.

At the 2026 JP Morgan Healthcare conference, Novavax CEO John Jacobs said, ““This company is no longer about one product or one season. It’s about building a sustainable engine for value creation built on technology, discipline, and long-term partnerships.”

This news came during a period of regulatory uncertainty surrounding vaccines. Due to abrupt leadership changes at HHS, ACIP was forced to cancel its February meeting this year. In 2025, incoming HHS Secretary Kennedy fired the previous council and replaced the members with his own picks.

However, this hasn’t stopped vaccines from being developed and approved. In May of this year, FDA’s advisory panel voted to update COVID-19 vaccine shots to target the XFG variant. This update includes the vaccine developed in partnership with Novavax and Sanofi.

Silvia Taylor spoke with Pharmaceutical Executivex about the current vaccine landscape and how new technologies are allowing more players to enter the space and develop new therapies. She also discussed the regulatory landscape and how vaccine developers are working around any potential issues.

Pharmaceutical Executive: How did Novavax develop its strategies across commercial, R&D, and partnerships?
Silvia Taylor: We are focused solidly in R&D innovation and partnerships. It's important to understand who Novavax has been and how we've evolved over time. We are a company that for several decades has been involved in vaccine research and development, so we really know vaccines.

We have our proprietary technology platform, our Adjuvant Matrix M, and when the pandemic hit, we were able to successfully answer the call and be one of the few companies that were able to get a COVID vaccine developed and on the market. We were commercializing that COVID vaccine on our own, but over time we realized that our best contribution is to continue to put our technology platform in the hands of partners who have even broader reach and have deep expertise like we do in vaccines to ensure that our vaccine products eventually get into the arms of as many people around the world as possible.

That means we shifted away from a focus on commercialization, choosing instead to partner our COVID vaccine, Nivaxivid, with Sanofi, one of the top leaders in vaccines. They now have the right to market Nivaxivid globally, which means we decreased our strategy of commercialization and increased the importance of our partnering.