American firm Novavax, Inc., a global company advancing protein-based vaccines with its Matrix-M^™ adjuvant, has announced that the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorisation for Nuvaxovid^™ XBB.1.5 dispersion for injection COVID-19 Vaccine (recombinant, adjuvanted) (NVX-CoV2601) for active immunisation to prevent COVID-19 in individuals aged 12 and older.

Doses of Novavax's updated vaccine will be delivered to Taiwan under an existing advanced purchase agreement and will be widely available at vaccination centers across Taiwan. 

"We are working closely with Taiwan's authorities to ensure doses of our updated protein-based non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccine are made available at vaccination centers across Taiwan as soon as possible," said John C. Jacobs, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax. 

Authorisation was based on non-clinical data showing that Novavax's updated COVID-19 vaccine induced functional immune responses for XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16 and XBB.2.3 variants. Additional non-clinical data demonstrated that Novavax's vaccine induced neutralizing antibody responses to subvariants BA.2.86, EG.5.1, FL.1.5.1 and XBB.1.16.6 as well as CD4+ polyfunctional cellular (T-cell) responses against EG.5.1 and XBB.1.16.6. These data indicate Novavax's vaccine can stimulate both arms of the immune system and induce a broad response against circulating variants.

Novavax's updated COVID-19 vaccine is also authorised in the US, the European Union, Canada and by the World Health Organization, and is under review in other markets.