Last year, Novavax reached a settlement with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, after the international partnership demanded repayment following the termination of an advance purchase agreement for COVID-19 vaccines.
Thirteen months later, Gavi may be on its way to a similar skirmish with China’s Clover Biopharmaceuticals after discontinuing another purchase agreement surrounding COVID shots.
In a regulatory filing, the Shanghai-based company said that Gavi has sent notice of the termination of their vaccine deal and is demanding that the company return an advance payment of $224 million.
“The Company rejects such claim for a repayment, believing it is without merit based on the terms of the Advance Purchase Agreement, and will defend itself vigorously,” Clover wrote, adding that it was not aware of any associated legal claims.
Gavi did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
In June of 2021, Clover and Gavi signed on to their partnership, with the company agreeing to provide up to 414 million doses of SCB-2019, its protein-based COVID shot, through 2022. But like Novavax, Clover struggled to meet regulatory targets in developing its vaccine.
If Gavi succeeds in its latest demand, Clover may not have enough cash to pay the organization back. The biotech is struggling financially. In its most recent earnings release, after the first half of 2024, the company reported negative revenue. Its cash and cash equivalents had shrunk from 1.8 billion Chinese yuan ($248 million) at the end of 2022 to 830 million Chinese yuan ($114 million).
With the COVID shot now a dud, Clover is banking its future on a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine candidate coded SCB-1019. The company also revealed on Monday that the FDA has cleared its application to start an in-human clinical trial of the non-adjuvanted bivalent RSV vaccine.
The company added that it has enrolled the first participants in a phase 1 revaccination trial of the prefusion-stabilized F (PreF)-Trimer subunit shot. Results from another phase 1 trial last year indicated that SCB-1019 is a potential best-in-class vaccine compared to GSK’s Arexvy, Clover said.