Earnings call transcript: Novavax Q3 2025 reports revenue beat, stock dips

Novavax Inc (NVAX) reported its third-quarter 2025 earnings, revealing a notable revenue beat despite a larger-than-expected loss per share. The company recorded a revenue of $70.45 million, surpassing forecasts of $55.66 million by 26.57%. However, the earnings per share (EPS) came in at a loss of $1.25, considerably below the expected loss of $0.54, marking a surprise of 130.33%. Following the earnings announcement, Novavax shares fell by 1.11% in pre-market trading, with the stock price dropping to $7.486.

Key Takeaways

• Novavax’s revenue exceeded expectations by over 26%.
• The EPS loss was significantly larger than anticipated.
• Stock price decreased by 1.11% in pre-market trading.
• The company raised its 2025 adjusted revenue guidance.
• Operational cost reductions were highlighted as a strategic focus.

Company Performance

Novavax reported a total revenue of $70 million for Q3 2025, down from $85 million in the same quarter last year. The decline was primarily due to reduced product sales, which amounted to $13 million, while licensing and royalties contributed $57 million. Despite the revenue beat, the company faced a net loss of $202 million, or $1.25 per diluted share, reflecting ongoing financial challenges.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $70 million, down from $85 million year-over-year.
• Earnings per share: -$1.25, compared to a forecast of -$0.54.
• Cash and accounts receivable: $812 million.
• SG&A expenses reduced by 55%.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Novavax’s actual revenue of $70.45 million exceeded the forecast of $55.66 million, resulting in a positive surprise of 26.57%. However, the EPS of -$1.25 was significantly below the forecasted -$0.54, marking a negative surprise of 130.33%. This discrepancy highlights the company’s ongoing struggle to manage costs amid declining product sales.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings release, Novavax’s stock experienced a decline of 1.11% in pre-market trading, with shares priced at $7.486. This movement reflects investor concerns over the larger-than-expected EPS loss despite the revenue beat. The stock remains within its 52-week range of $5.01 to $11.55, indicating moderate volatility.

Outlook & Guidance

Novavax raised its adjusted total revenue guidance for 2025 to a range of $1,040-$1,060 million, indicating confidence in its strategic initiatives and partnerships. The company is targeting non-GAAP profitability by 2028 and expects significant growth in royalties from its collaboration with Sanofi in 2026-2027.

Executive Commentary

CEO John Jacobs emphasized the company’s strategic priorities, stating, "We are seeing continued success across our strategic priorities for the year." He further highlighted the importance of collaborations, noting, "Our new strategy is centered on amplifying the impact of our technology platform through collaborations." CFO Jim Kelly added, "We believe that providing both the gross spend and net of partner reimbursement views provides investors with a better understanding of our core operating cost structure."

Risks and Challenges

• Continued financial losses impacting investor confidence.
• Declining product sales amidst a competitive vaccine market.
• Potential supply chain disruptions affecting production and distribution.
• Market saturation in the COVID-19 vaccine segment.
• Macroeconomic pressures influencing consumer demand.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the potential of Novavax’s Matrix-M technology and future partnership opportunities. There were also discussions on the company’s early-stage pipeline strategies and the dynamics of the COVID-19 vaccine market. Manufacturing and supply strategies were addressed to reassure stakeholders about the company’s operational resilience.

Full transcript - Novavax Inc (NVAX) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Morning and welcome to Novavax Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results and Operational Highlights Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star and then the digit one on your touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, repeat the steps of star and one. Please note this event is being recorded, and I would now like to turn the conference over to Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Good morning and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our third quarter 2025 financial results and operational highlights. A press release announcing our results is available on our website at novavax.com, and an audio archive of this conference call will be available on our website later today. Please turn to slide two. Before we begin with prepared remarks, I need to remind you that this presentation includes forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements related to Novavax’s corporate strategy and operating plans, its strategic priorities, its partnerships and expectations with respect to potential royalties, milestones, cost reimbursements, its expectations regarding manufacturing capacity, timing, production, and delivery for its COVID-19 vaccine, the development of Novavax’s clinical and preclinical product candidates, the timing and results of our clinical trials, timing of regulatory filings and actions, its APA agreements and related negotiations.

Full year 2025 financial guidance and revenue framework, full year 2026 revenue framework preview, and Novavax’s future financial or business performance, including long-term growth, savings, and profitability targets. Each forward-looking statement contained in this presentation is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statements. Additional information regarding these factors appears under the heading "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in the presentation we issued this morning and under the heading "Risk Factors" in our most recent Form 10-K and subsequent Form 10-Qs filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission available at sec.gov and on our website at novavax.com. The forward-looking statements in this presentation speak only as of the original date of this presentation, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Please turn to slide three.

This presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures, which are total adjusted revenue, adjusted licensing, royalties, and other revenue, combined R&D and SG&A expenses less partner reimbursements, and non-GAAP profitability. Please turn to slide four. Joining me today is John Jacobs, our President and CEO, who will highlight our growth strategy and provide an update on our progress during the quarter. Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, will discuss our R&D updates, and Jim Kelly, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, will review our financial results and 2025 financial guidance and revenue framework. I would now like to hand over the call to John.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: Thank you, Louis. I’m excited to be here today with members of our executive team to share our third quarter results. During Q3, we progressed our corporate strategy of driving growth and value by continuing to strengthen existing partnerships and build new collaborations while advancing R&D innovation and our early-stage pipeline. Please turn to slide five. We’ve been on a steady path to transform Novavax since I joined the organization in 2023. With our new corporate strategy as our guide, we have an exciting opportunity to drive value for our shareholders and the communities we serve for decades to come. Let me take you through how we intend to get there and the progress we’ve already made. When I joined the organization in 2023, we were a fully integrated commercial organization primarily focused on sales of our COVID-19 vaccine.

Our imperative at that time was to stabilize the company financially, and to that end, we removed more than $1 billion of current liabilities by year-end 2024 compared to 2022. During that same period, we also reduced almost $1 billion in operating expenses. In addition, in 2024, we announced a significant and multifaceted partnership with Sanofi, which has now allowed us to accelerate the next phase of the company’s planned evolution. This year, we relaunched Novavax as a company focused on partnerships and R&D innovation. Our new strategy is centered on amplifying the impact of our technology platform through collaborations with other biopharmaceutical companies and a new diversified pipeline, and this represents a strategic and thoughtful departure away from a single focus on the resource-intense commercialization of one product, our COVID-19 vaccine. To date, we have made significant progress on this strategy.

For example, over the past eight quarters, we’ve achieved approximately $1.1 billion in non-dilutive cash flow to the company, including $800 million from our partnerships in the form of upfront payments and milestones earned to date. We also just recently expanded our Sanofi partnership to include use of our Matrix-M adjuvant in their pandemic flu vaccine candidate, for which Sanofi received a US BARDA grant. We renegotiated our agreement with Takeda, which enhanced our revenue opportunity from their activities with Nuvaxovid in Japan, one of the world’s largest healthcare markets. On the R&D front, via a lean strategic investment approach in Q1 of this year, we launched a new early-stage portfolio, including programs targeting C. diff, shingles, RSV combination, and pandemic flu, and initiated an exploration of our Matrix-M technology platform to assess its applicability in oncology.

Finally, on our financial profile, we continue to improve the financial strength of the company while maintaining our capabilities. For example, most recently, we brought in $60 million in near-term cash and anticipated long-term savings of approximately $230 million by consolidating our Maryland campus footprint. With this steady progress since 2023 to transform our company, we are now in a new phase of opportunity for Novavax. As we look ahead, the work we are doing now is intended to position the company well for a period of long-term growth and profitability. The intent is for this growth to be driven by a growing and diversified revenue base that stems from multiple partnerships, milestones, royalty streams, and our emerging R&D portfolio. Assuming continued execution of our plan and by our partners, both existing and new.

We are executing toward a future for Novavax in which we have the potential to achieve non-GAAP profitability as early as 2028. During this time of transition, before we reach our intended goal of profitability, we expect our revenue mix to change as we rely on milestone payments in the midterm to bridge to an increased emphasis on licensing and royalty revenue, which we expect to grow over time both in magnitude and in the number and diversity of our royalty streams. With this as our focus, our 2025 priorities to advance our strategy and grow shareholder value are threefold. Number one, optimizing our partnership with Sanofi. Number two, enhancing existing partnerships and leveraging our technology platform and pipeline to forge additional partnerships. Number three, advancing our technology platform and early-stage pipeline. Across all three of these priorities, we have made significant progress in the third quarter.

In our partnership with Sanofi, we have achieved all milestones expected for 2025, securing a total of $225 million for the year from the BLA approval for Nuvaxovid and including $50 million from the successful transfer of our marketing authorizations in both the U.S. and the European Union. We also completed the transfer to Sanofi of lead commercial responsibility for the U.S., allowing us to fully discontinue our own sales and marketing efforts this year for Nuvaxovid. On their recent earnings call, Sanofi stated that 2025 marks an important transition year for Nuvaxovid, with their full commercial launch in the U.S. and select other global markets expected for the 2026-2027 season. Beyond Nuvaxovid, Novavax is also eligible to receive milestones and royalties associated with the development of new combination vaccines that include Nuvaxovid.

Recently, Sanofi indicated preliminary positive phase I-II safety and immunogenicity data for both of their combination products featuring Nuvaxovid and their approved flu vaccines, and are planning to engage with regulators on next steps. The agreement with Sanofi enables them to develop new vaccines using our Matrix-M adjuvant. Though we cannot speak for our partners regarding any specifics on their plans and activities here, we can say that they are exploring the potential of Matrix-M across several early-stage pipeline programs, and we look forward to any potential opportunities emerging over time from these efforts. In addition to our partnerships with Sanofi and Takeda, our partnership with Serum Institute of India and Oxford University on the R21 Matrix-M malaria vaccine continues to make an impact on global public health.

Through September of this year, approximately 25 million doses of R21 Matrix-M vaccine have been distributed to about 24 countries in Africa, with the most recent launch in Zambia announced a couple of weeks ago. This is a much-needed option for a region where malaria continues to be one of the continent’s most persistent public health threats, with economic and social impacts, historically killing over 600,000 people annually and disproportionately impacting children under five in sub-Saharan Africa. We are very proud that our technology is a critical component of this important solution for global public health. Our strong performance as a partner helps to set the stage for future potential collaborations to generate additional meaningful royalty streams for Novavax for years to come in a global vaccine market.

That is expected to grow over the next 10 years, we believe that Novavax is well-positioned to capitalize on this growth by continuing to leverage our technology and expertise to tackle some of the world’s most significant health challenges. Finally, during the quarter, our R&D team continued to make progress in advancing our early-stage pipeline. At this point, I’d like to turn the call over to Ruxandra to share more. Rux.

Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, Novavax: Thank you, John. Please turn to slide seven. I’m excited to share more about our progress in R&D. I’m just returning from several of the quarter’s key medical meetings during which I’ve had the opportunity to discuss and reflect on the current trends in vaccination. As you know, infectious diseases know no borders, and the need for vaccination is no different. While the need for vaccination globally remains constant, we know that regional differences in actual vaccination rates, as well as vaccine confidence, can fluctuate greatly. This is a phenomenon known since the introduction of the first vaccine, the smallpox vaccine. Vaccine confidence is a leading indicator of vaccination rates in areas worldwide influenced by political, historical, cultural, and socioeconomic factors, with highs and lows sometimes varying as much as 50%-60% in the same region or country year to year.

This is something we have seen in the flu and other vaccine markets over the years, and to some degree more recently in the U.S. with RSV, shingles, measles, COVID-19, and other vaccines. It is reasonable to expect that vaccination rates could improve in the future. Additionally, many recent reports, such as those from McKinsey and others, have estimated that the global vaccine market could steadily grow at an average annual rate of 6%-8% to reach a size of over $75 billion by 2030. Coming back to recent medical meetings, I had the opportunity to speak more about our technology and its incredible potential. I am energized by the reception received from colleagues, researchers, and industry participants at these meetings. Like us, they see the potential of our technology in both new and existing vaccines and are excited to watch our early-stage programs evolve.

One of the key topics we have been presenting on has been the continued assessment of the tolerability profile of Matrix-M containing vaccines, a key differentiator of our vaccine platform. For example, active comparator studies of Nuvaxovid versus mRNA COVID vaccines revealed lower frequencies and intensities of local and solicited adverse effects and lower impacts of reactogenicity on quality-of-life measures among our vaccine recipients. These findings are consistent with systematic review and meta-analyses, which are expected to be published in the near future and are important because we expect that improved tolerability associated with comparable, if not better, efficacy and durability is likely to lead to higher rates of vaccine uptake. Please turn to slide eight. During the quarter, we have been making continued progress on our four current early preclinical vaccine candidates. C. diff, shingles, RSV combination, and pandemic influenza.

We are continuing to refine these candidates, investing smartly and using AI and machine learning to rapidly and cost-effectively inform design, create new antigen, and then test to help prepare the assets for clinical work as programs progress. I will provide a brief update of each program. Our C. diff vaccine candidate targets a major pathogen responsible for antibiotic-associated diarrhea, frequently observed in hospital settings. The incidence and severity of C. diff infections are rising across the world with no approved vaccine. For our work on the shingles program, we are advancing two different activated protein antigens with Matrix-M. Early preclinical results suggest both induced immunogenicity and, as anticipated, potentially a better reactogenicity profile. Finally, we believe that our RSV combination program has the potential to meet the desire of both the public and healthcare providers for a combination vaccine that can address multiple respiratory viruses at once.

For all three programs, we have exciting preclinical data that is beginning to emerge and further indicate the potential of our technology platform to make a difference in these critical areas of unmet need. We look forward to sharing more with you in the coming quarters as our initial data sets from these early programs begin to crystallize. Our Matrix-M activated pandemic influenza vaccine candidate shows promise in potentially being able to deliver a single-dose vaccine option that can be given either intramuscularly or intranasally to protect against pandemic influenza infection in individuals who had a previous exposure to seasonal influenza or received a seasonal influenza vaccine. This benefit may be critically important in the context of a future public health emergency, given options for administration and fewer doses needed for protection. We are actively seeking funding from government programs to test our vaccine candidate in clinical trials.

Matrix-M has been proven to provide positive clinical benefits in infectious diseases, and we are excited about our early progress with the new pipeline of programs in both viral and bacterial applications. As noted earlier, a key component of our corporate strategy is to leverage our technology platform and to diversify both within and beyond infectious diseases. For example, since January, we have begun early work to explore the potential utility of our adjuvant, including new formulations in oncology. Our early clinical work is aligned with our corporate strategy and is supportive of ongoing discussions with both existing and potential partners. We continue to progress these relationships with the goal of developing new partnerships and, in doing so, new vaccines or improving existing vaccines that could have a positive impact on global health for decades to come.

I look forward to continuing to update you on each of these exciting programs as more data becomes available. I’ll turn the call to Jim now.

Jim Kelly, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Novavax: All right. Thank you, Rux. Please turn to slide nine. This morning, we announced our financial results for the third quarter of 2025. Details of our results can be found in our press release issued today and in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. Please turn to slide 10. I’ll begin with key highlights from our third quarter 2025 financial results. We reported total revenue of $70 million, and importantly, Sanofi has now taken on the lead commercial role for Nuvaxovid in the U.S. and select ex-U.S. markets. Sanofi recorded $23 million in Nuvaxovid sales in the third quarter of 2025 and reiterated that 2025 is a transition year as they establish their commercial capabilities in the U.S. Novavax has recorded $4 million in royalties related to these sales in the quarter.

During the third quarter of 2025, we continued to transform Novavax into a more lean and agile organization. For example, this quarter saw an 18% reduction in our combined R&D and SG&A costs compared to the same period last year. Of note, we reduced SG&A by 55% as we reduced commercial and general infrastructure spending. In October, we announced a set of transactions that enable Novavax to further consolidate our Maryland sites and is expected to result in $60 million in cash proceeds by the first quarter of 2026 and approximately $230 million in cost avoidance over the next 11 years. Investors will see $126 million in non-cash charges in the current quarter related to the Maryland site consolidation and the convertible debt financing transactions. These are non-cash in nature, and each transaction serves to materially improve our financial strength as we execute on our growth strategy.

Novavax ended the third quarter with $812 million in cash and accounts receivable. This is prior to factoring in an additional $110 million earned for MAH transfers and Maryland site transactions announced in the fourth quarter. Year-to-date, Sanofi milestones earned of $225 million is consistent with our 2025 revenue framework and includes the $50 million earned related to the US and EU MAH transfers. Please turn to slide 11 for a detailed review of our third quarter revenue results. For the third quarter of 2025, we recorded total revenue of $70 million compared to $85 million in the same period of 2024. Product sales for the third quarter of 2025 of $13 million comes from COVID-19 vaccine and Matrix-M supply sales to our licensed partners and reflects a change to our business model as we now primarily support our licensed partners who market products that leverage our technology platform.

Licensing royalties and other revenue of $57 million in the third quarter of 2025 was primarily from our Sanofi agreement and includes $46 million of R&D reimbursement and $4 million of royalties from the sales of Nuvaxovid. Please turn to slide 12 for a detailed view of our third quarter financial results, where I’ll focus on our operating expense results and trends. Third quarter of 2025 combined R&D and SG&A expenses were $130 million and reflected an 18% reduction from the same period in 2024. While our R&D spend of $98 million exceeds the prior year, $46 million, or almost half, is subject to reimbursement by Sanofi. Importantly, our SG&A expenses were 55% lower than the same period last year and are driven by the transition of lead global commercial activities to Sanofi, plus strong execution on our broader cost reduction plan.

During the third quarter of 2025, we incurred non-cash charges totaling $126 million, inclusive of a $97 million asset impairment related to our Maryland site consolidation and $29 million related to loss on debt extinguishment for the convertible debt refinancing. The convertible debt refinancing in August extended the maturity of the majority of the 2027 notes to 2031 with improved terms. This transaction supports Novavax’s financial strength during a key transition period for the company. Finally, we reported a net loss of $202 million, or $1.25 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2025. Please turn to slide 13. We are committed to streamlining our operating expenses to enable value creation. We are reaffirming our full year 2025 financial guidance for combined R&D and SG&A expenses of $520 million at the midpoint and narrowing the range to $505-$535 million.

On a non-GAAP basis and net of partner reimbursement, we now expect full year 2025 R&D and SG&A to be approximately $450 million at midpoint. This reflects an approximately $15 million improvement versus the prior estimate of approximately $465 million. We are also reaffirming our multi-year targets for 2026 and 2027 combined R&D and SG&A expenses net of partner reimbursements of $350 million and $250 million, respectively. We believe that providing both the gross spend and net of partner reimbursement views provides investors with a better understanding of our core operating cost structure. We are awaiting our licensed partners to complete their 2026 planning processes to better understand if there are any new updates to our R&D support. We do not expect potential updates to impact our core spend targets net of reimbursement outlined today.

Please turn to slide 14 for a recap of sources of 2024 and 2025 cash flow earned through November 2025. During 2024 and 2025, we significantly improved Novavax’s financial strength by securing $1.4 billion in new cash for the company while in parallel reducing our cost structure and liabilities. $1.1 billion, or 78% of this cash, came from non-dilutive sources, including partner upfronts and milestones, plus sale of assets. Important to note, we have not raised equity capital from our ATM facility since the second quarter of 2024 as we prioritize non-dilutive funding sources and cost reductions. Please turn to slide 15. Now turning to our 2025 revenue framework. Today, we are raising our prior revenue framework by $25 million at the midpoint and now expect to achieve adjusted total revenue of between $1,040 million and $1,060 million.

Our 2025 revenue framework excludes Sanofi supply sales, royalties, influenza COVID-19 combination, and Matrix-M related milestones. This means there may be revenue in 2025 that is additive to our expectations for adjusted total revenue for the year. At midpoint, the $25 million increase to our 2025 adjusted total revenue is driven by a $7.5 million increase to adjusted supply sales related to increased demand for Matrix-M from Serum for the R21 Matrix-M malaria vaccine, a $12.5 million increase to Sanofi cost reimbursement related to ongoing R&D activities, and a $5 million increase to other partner revenue related to Serum and Decatur royalties. Please turn to slide 16 for a preview of our 2026 revenue framework. For 2026, we are following an approach similar to the 2025 revenue framework in that our non-GAAP adjusted total revenue excludes Sanofi royalties, KICK milestones, COVID-19 supply sales, and Novavax COVID-19 APA sales.

This means there may be revenues in 2026 that are additive to our expectations for adjusted licensing royalty and other revenue. That said, we believe that the 2026-2027 season Novavax royalties will grow significantly as compared to 2025, as next year reflects the first full year where Sanofi will have the opportunity to prepare for its marketing and contracting efforts and build upon the learnings from the current transition year in the U.S. and markets outside the U.S. This preliminary preview is intended to help investors better track the Novavax transition period revenues under our Sanofi agreement. Investors should not anticipate a similar update at this time next year, as these activities are expected to be materially completed by the end of 2026. For 2026, we expect to achieve adjusted total revenue of between $185 million and $205 million.

This includes a $75 million milestone from the completion of manufacturing technology transfer expected to be earned in the fourth quarter of 2026. $30-$40 million in R&D reimbursement as we complete our R&D support and technology transfer activities for Sanofi. $30-$40 million of adjusted supply sales to our licensed partners, which primarily reflects sales of Matrix-M. Finally, $50 million of non-cash amortization related to the previously received upfront and R&D milestone payments from Sanofi. In the case of both R&D reimbursement and adjusted supply sales, these preliminary ranges are subject to the completion of our licensed partners’ plans for 2026. When comparing our non-GAAP adjusted total revenue for 2026 to 2025, please note that 2025 includes $610 million in non-cash product sales related to the settlement of APA agreements.

While currently excluded from our 2026 adjusted total revenue, there is the potential for a $125 million milestone linked to the initiation of a phase III KICK program, and its addition is pending feedback from Sanofi regarding clinical plans for their KICK programs. We are encouraged by the recent Sanofi announcement of preliminary positive results from both of their KICK phase I-II programs and their intent to engage with regulatory authorities to advance development. As Novavax drives towards our goal of non-GAAP profitability, we expect this could occur as early as 2028. Key to the timing of our path to non-GAAP P&L profitability are the successful development and regulatory approval of the Sanofi KICK program and successful commercial execution by Sanofi on both the COVID and KICK programs. This could be further supported by our expectation that we will add additional cash flow from new business development agreements.

We look forward to sharing additional updates as we improve Novavax’s financial performance, cost structure, and strength to deliver shareholder value. With that, I’d like to turn the call back over to John for some closing remarks.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Thank you, Jim. In summary, we’re proud of the continued progress being made on our corporate strategy with a consistent track record of execution to date. We are seeing continued success across our strategic priorities for the year, including optimizing our partnership with Sanofi, enhancing other existing partnerships, and working to forge new potential collaborations. We have been advancing our early-stage pipeline and working to expand the utility of our technology platform. This is all underpinned by a continued focus on further improving our financial foundation while ensuring we have the right capabilities to successfully execute our strategy into the future. We remain committed to our growth strategy and believe that it puts us on the best path to deliver long-term sustainable value for our shareholders.

Our progress to date has set us on the right path heading into the year-end and into 2026, and we remain excited about the future of Novavax. Thank you to our shareholders for their support, and as always, we appreciate all of the hard work and dedication of our employees, without whom this success would not be possible. I’d now like to turn the call over to our operator for Q&A. Operator.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: Gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then the digit one on your touch-tone phone. If you’re using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please repeat the steps star and one. That will also remove you from today’s queue. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, that is star and one. We’ll take our first question today from Roger Song at Jefferies.

Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, Novavax: Hey, team. This is Nabil on for Roger. Thanks for the updates. Maybe two from us. How do you see the 2025 COVID season as compared to last year? Are you getting any feedback from pharmacies on stocking and consumer preference for the product? Could you provide some more color on that BARDA grant, and does it reflect any attitude from the FDA? Thank you.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Yeah. Hey, thank you. Thank you for your questions. Jim, did you want to take that?

Jim Kelly, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Novavax: Hey, certainly. Hey, why don’t I begin and thank you for the question about the COVID season? By the way, a lot of credit to Jefferies. You put out an exceptional COVID tracker every week. What I’ll do is, hey, for all your customers, I’m going to reference it. I know it’s a lot of IQVIA data, but you do exceptional work. On the BARDA piece, which I think is referencing the new pandemic flu BARDA grant to Sanofi, I’m going to have Rex speak to that and some of the latest on the pandemic flu front. All right. Beginning with the COVID season, as folks know, especially in the U.S., we had a policy update this year, certainly more restrictive in the below-65 age groups.

When we look at the year-over-year, and I think folks know we started one week late, so if you adjust for that, the season in terms of RXs are down about 20% compared to last year. That’s fairly consistent, at least I’ll say, with our internal analytics and expectation for how. Ours and actually others in this market, how their labels have been altered. When you think about the label for COVID then in the U.S., it’s beginning to become far more aligned to Europe and global markets. When we think about the COVID market this year and its go-forward expectations, there’s just a bit of a resetting occurring in the U.S. Our expectation is you build from there with sound footing. That’s some of the feedback on the COVID market. We’re really looking forward to.

Sanofi and what they’re going to be able to do with Novavax, especially starting next year when they get their full year. With that said and talking about Sanofi, perhaps Rex, some feedback on the new BARDA announcement.

Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, Novavax: Yes. Thank you, Jim. Thank you for the question, Roger. We are talking here about a BARDA grant that has been awarded to our partners, to Sanofi, for early-stage work with their vaccine candidate for pandemic influenza, but including our Matrix-M adjuvant. The companies have announced previously that we’ve amended our collaboration agreement to include Novavax’s Matrix-M adjuvant in this Sanofi pandemic influenza vaccine candidate. This candidate is going to go through phase two. As you are, we are very keen in seeing the results. Obviously, eventually contributing to pandemic influenza preparedness in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Thank you.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: Our next question will come from the line of Mayank Mamtani at, or excuse me, Mamtani, rather, at B. Riley Securities.

Mayank Mamtani, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Yes. Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. Appreciate the detailed R&D updates today. Yeah. Thank you, John. On the Sanofi collaboration, it seems like that’s progressing well, including the preliminary positive KICK data they talked about. Could you talk to your awareness and next steps there? I also asked since you may have some of your own guidance regarding your KICK program. It seems from Moderna’s earnings this morning, they’re still awaiting the FDA feedback on their phase three KICK package. I also was curious where you stand with your wholly-owned standalone flu program. I have a quick follow-up.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Mike, thank you for your question. We were very excited to hear Sanofi’s announcement in their recent earnings call that they had positive data on both of their combination programs, including their world-leading flu vaccines and our new vaccine. As our investors, I hope, are well aware, Novavax is eligible for significant future potential royalties and milestones as they initiate a phase three program. Should they do that and then start to sell that product and market it or product? Both of those products were fast-tracked by FDA about a year ago. We are very excited. We cannot comment on where they are, but what they did say, we can reference you and our investors to their public commentary that they are approaching the regulator for next steps on that. We look forward to hearing updates and to them advancing that program, hopefully to phase three and beyond.

Regarding our own program, what we’ve said consistently about that, Mike, is that we intend to out-license our KICK, our combination COVID flu program that’s phase three ready, as well as our flu program, both of those assets, and that we continue to seek partners for that and have dialogue about that. Not much we can say about that. If we get a partner and do a deal and we sign it, we’ll be able to announce it. That is the intention. Look, we have good data on both of those assets and programs. We think our technology and believe and have seen it proven over time can make a big difference on global public health, and we’ll be excited to hopefully see those assets in the hands of another organization someday in the future. That’s our intention. We’ll keep you posted.

Mayank Mamtani, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Got it. Thank you for that comprehensive update. Then on the rollout of some of the preclinical data that you talked about on C. diff, shingles, RSV. Was just curious if these experiments were done keeping in mind head-to-head comparisons with current available vaccines could be interesting. Was also curious, we’ve seen some mixed updates, for example, the Pfizer C. diff vaccine not playing out in terms of events after initial immunogenicity data was strong a couple of years ago. Was curious if you could talk to how we can think of the three programs, as investors obviously want to start ascribing value there. Lastly, just quickly for Jim, on the non-GAAP profitability goal now targeted for 2028, can you just clarify if anything has changed to what you had communicated previously? Thanks for taking our questions.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Thank you, Mike. Rex, do you want to take that first question from Mike on our pipeline?

Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, Novavax: Yes. Thank you, John. In our experimentation, in all our experiments, we are always introducing a negative control and a positive control. For the positive control, we are typically using either approved vaccines, which will serve as, if you want, the guidepost for our experiments, if such vaccines already are approved and on the market. In the case of, as you were pointing out, C. diff, where an approved vaccine is not yet on the market, we are actually using a positive control, constructs that are very similar with what competitors have used in their clinical trials. Every good scientist has to include these negative and positive controls in the experiments. If not, one would not really have the right type of information. That is from my side to respond to the first part of your question.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Thank you, Rex and Andrea. Mike, thank you for pointing out our three programs. We’re making progress in the lab, early stage, preclinical, and we’re looking forward to, in the coming quarters, unveiling some of the learnings. We have some exciting information we’re learning internally here where the teams continue to progress that quarter on quarter. We’re excited about what we’re seeing so far. Beyond the three programs you mentioned, we also have our own pandemic flu initiative. Our team’s been working with both the European and U.S. governmental authorities to seek funding for our own pandemic flu. That’s above and beyond what Sanofi may do with our Matrix-M and their flu product. We’re also looking at intranasal application potentially for that asset. We’ll keep you posted as that progresses.

In addition, very importantly, we are working on Matrix-M itself to expand its utility, expand the IP around Matrix-M, and its applicability we are exploring in things beyond infectious disease. We branch beyond just viral antigens to also explore in bacterial, which you mentioned today, and thank you for that. In addition, we are looking to go beyond infectious disease and see what Matrix-M can do. Ruxandra and her team are deep into the early exploration of some of those other avenues. We are excited about the potential and excited to unveil in the coming quarters what we are learning there. Pretty good. Jim, did you want to take the profitability question from Mike?

Jim Kelly, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Novavax: Yeah, certainly. Mike, I think you and the investors have heard from us consistently that driving this company to non-GAAP profitability and beyond, throwing off cash as a company, delivering shareholder value, is a critical priority for the company. The timing of which, our goals to how we get there, you’re watching us control what we can control, which is driving down our costs, seeking non-dilutive funding along the way, making sure we have that strong balance sheet. We also recognize we’re, in many ways, relying on our partners, Sanofi in particular now, but heck, we’re moving to bring more partners online as well. New information since last we spoke, great news on KICK, two positive phase one two studies. What we also learned, hey, Sanofi is going to be working with the regulators to get those programs advanced.

This new information leads us to view the more likely timeframe to potentially initiate a phase three or get to market with KICK to have shifted out probably at least six, twelve months just based on the timing of this update. Therefore, we updated the timing for the as early as estimate from 2027 to 2028. All said, though, when you look at all the pieces to what can drive us to profitability, we’re seeing positive trends across the board. You heard our feedback on how we view the market. You heard from Ruxandra and John how we view our technology, the advancement, and therefore our abilities to partner, including not just early stage pipeline, but also our late stage assets. You are hearing what I think is exceptional news, like I said, from Sanofi on their preparations for next year and beyond with COVID.

We are certainly going to continue to endeavor and drive to this non-GAAP profitability and beyond, just providing the latest update on that today.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Yeah, Jim. It is our intent to take a conservative position on that as we communicate with investors, toggle to what we know is in front of us as we learn related to the Sanofi deal itself. Just that one vehicle can lead to that with our base business that we already have, not including anything new we may do. Right now, that is what we see in front of us based on that latest update. We will work really hard to do even better than that.

Mayank Mamtani, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Super helpful. Appreciate the transparency there. Thank you.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: Our next question today will come from the line of Eric Schmidt at Cantor.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: Thanks. It’s Eric filling in for Pete today. First, John and team, just congrats on a complete makeover of your company. You guys were way out ahead of the curve here. Far larger companies in the space could certainly learn from your leads. It has been fun to watch.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Thank you, Eric.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: Question on Matrix-M and some of the MTAs you got exploring use of this with potential partners. What sort of the cadence of timelines and milestones, deliverables that a partner would kind of need to go through in order to convert some of these evaluations to more formal arrangements? What timescale are you thinking about?

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: It’s an excellent question, Eric. I’d love to be able to put a clock on that for you, but I cannot here today. Obviously, there’s more we know than we’d be able to say theoretically in any of those types of situations, right? The good news is that we have, to your point, multiple MTAs signed with organizations, a couple of large top 10 pharmaceutical global organizations that have an interest in this technology and this space, as well as smaller companies outside of infectious disease even. Very, very interesting. That work is ongoing. Those companies, in general, I think the way to frame it in that type of arrangement when you’re working with a technology like we have, and this isn’t Novavax specific, but I’ll give you a framework to think about, a company would take that type of technology, put it into the lab, do some experiments.

They’ve done some thought experiment before that, obviously had communications with our team, business development team. We have data we share. We do experiments in our lab. They get interested. They duplicate those and do their own experiments in their lab. These are not years, right? These are experiments that are shorter than that. They’re in animal models and in the lab. If that’s confirmatory, that would be the potential type of early pivot point in that journey where they might consider an arrangement with us. That’s the type of framework to think about. I won’t put a clock to it, but I will say it’s not years and years and years down the road. They’ll know whether or not they’d like to do something with it as they get results out of their lab on early experiments.

It takes a certain period of time if we were to get to that kind of point to then negotiate deals. Our team has shown we’re able to negotiate deals, whether it’s selling real estate and downsizing certain areas that no longer support the new strategy. Thank you for recognizing how we’ve reshaped the company, or to something like a Sanofi arrangement and even these MTAs. Lots ahead is our intention. We’re really excited about the potential. There’s a lot of interest in our technology outside of Novavax. We’ll continue to work to mine that and hope in the near term to have some updates for you that are exciting.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: Very helpful. Thanks, John. Maybe another question on Novavax. Realizing that this is a transition year and that maybe traditional benchmarks like market share and sales do not really apply, are there things that would make this a successful transition year in terms of distribution channels and maybe softer metrics that you are looking for your partner to achieve? Thank you.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Yeah, I think a lot of that already happened, Eric. I think Jim Kelly will comment as well here. Certainly, the transition from an EUA to a BLA to a full U.S. license was a critical first step. That is a first for Novavax, right? We handed the baton off on the EUA and picked it up for Sanofi on a BLA. That happened mid-calendar year and after initial retail negotiations began, right? You are sort of halfway into the cycle. That was very important, though, that that BLA was approved, also prefilled syringe, also competitive shelf life approved at the same time as mRNAs by the regulatory authorities, right? It is an even playing field now. For the first time since I came here to Novavax, it is now an even playing field.

It had not been, as you know, through the pandemic and those things. We got it there. It is in the hands of a world leader in vaccines on an even playing field. We are very excited. Jim, anything to add to that?

Jim Kelly, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Novavax: John, really two things I’d add. This year set the table with an even playing field, then what do you do with it? We’re seeing a couple of things. One is you got a full 12-month cycle time to get the contracting right. What we know is Sanofi is an infinitely better contractor than we ever were with that full vaccine portfolio. Really looking forward to that piece of it. We also know, given the transition year, Sanofi is doing some piloting across the country on different marketing techniques and sub-markets. Excellent. That means their marketing capability toolkit is going to be optimized as they go into next year. That’s what we meant when we said, "Hey, listen, we’re really excited to have Sanofi as our commercial partner. And we’re really happy.

At what the table has been set to enable them to do moving forward.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: Appreciate the thoughts, guys. Thank you.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Thank you, Eric.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: Our next question will come from Chris LoBianco at TD Securities.

Chris LoBianco/Mary Kate Davis, Analysts, TD Securities/Citi: Oh, thank you for taking my questions and congrats on all the progress this quarter. We’ve seen some competitors’ phase two shingles vaccine data, which showed comparable immunogenicity and better tolerability than Shingrix. Can you remind us what Novavax thinks the clinical bar for success for a novel shingles vaccine is? How might your vaccine platform be differentiated from some of the competitive data we’ve seen in phase two?

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Ruxandra, were you able to hear the question from Chris?

Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, Novavax: I think that Chris, thank you for the question. I think that you have asked if we have looked at other competitors’ data when it comes to the efficacy and tolerability of their shingles candidates. Is that so?

Chris LoBianco/Mary Kate Davis, Analysts, TD Securities/Citi: Yes, that’s correct. How can Novavax’s platform be differentiated?

Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, Novavax: Again, coming to the response that I gave at the previous question, we do actually have positive comparators and multiple comparators in all our preclinical testing. Obviously, for non-approved vaccines, it is really based on the scientific endeavor and on the published data. This being said, in all the experiments, we are including groups that are treated either with shingles, yeah, or with the type of vaccines that could mimic whatever is happening in other people’s hands. We are very confident that the data that we are generating is actually very informative. It is potentially going to compare well in human clinical trials. Obviously, we need to get there with our experiments. We are actually looking forward to sharing with you more data when that is becoming available.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Yeah, it’s a really good question, Chris, because—Rex, let me build upon what you just shared. Thank you for that, Rex. It’s a good question. Obviously, the shingles vaccine, we’ve seen data that up to potentially 40% or so in certain markets of consumers may not get their booster shot on the current shingles vaccine because they’re concerned about side effects. Obviously, Chris, the bar on efficacy with the current marketed shingles vaccine is very high. That’s an excellent vaccine when it comes to efficacy. We’re glad it’s there to protect all of us, right, as consumers. The baggage on the side effects piece is an area for opportunity there for competitors to come in and improve. We’re glad to see other companies are investing there.

It’s one of the top five or six areas of vaccine investment, actually, according to McKinsey and other sources, right, because of this opportunity that’s there. Let me just say this: there’s no guarantee, as you well know in biotech—this includes Novavax, right—that anything coming out of your laboratories will go all the way to success. We’re excited about early results we’re seeing, but it’s early. It’s preclinical, right? Like Rex said, we have to go through all of the different studies and tests to get there. So do competitors. It’s good to see other programs advancing. How many of those may go all the way through full phase three and meet that high efficacy bar that’s out there or come close enough to it and deliver on the tolerability in the end in a final product? That’s a difficult bar to achieve. We’ll be glad.

We’ll bet on our technology every time because we believe in Matrix-M and what we’re doing. We believe that we’ve got a strong shot to have a competitive product. Again, we’re not promising on anything: future deals, things coming out of the clinic, right? There’s risk in biotech. You have to execute. It’s our intention to do so. We’ve got a great technology platform we’re confident in. We’re excited to bring it forward.

Chris LoBianco/Mary Kate Davis, Analysts, TD Securities/Citi: Great. Thank you.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: Next, we’ll go to the line of Alec Stranahan at Bank of America.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking our questions and congrats on the continued progress in the quarter. First, good to see the second $25 million milestone come in a few days ago. So we’ve got that for 4Q. Looking to next year, appreciate the preliminary guidance for 2026. Could you maybe walk us through the $75 million milestone estimate? I guess, what does this entail? Assuming this is fairly high conviction given the preliminary guidance, any other high conviction items that you’d maybe single out beyond the Sanofi milestones next year? I’ve got a follow up.

Jim Kelly, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Novavax: All right, Eric. Hey, thank you for your question. You’re certainly right. We’re very, very pleased with the progress we’ve made to date across both pipeline advancement and also supporting our partners. In particular, as we look at the milestones for next year, the $75 million milestone that we’ve included in the 2026 adjusted revenue framework relates to completion of manufacturing tech transfer with Sanofi. Specifically, what that means is we knew when we signed our CLA with Sanofi that we’d be supporting them with commercial manufacturing while they learned what it would take to be self-sufficient, right, to manufacture on their own. We believe we’re right on track to be able to complete that manufacturing tech transfer by the fourth quarter next year.

What that’s going to mean for our financial statements is not just the milestone hits, but that 2026 will be the completion of when we act as a bit of a middleman on getting supply for Sanofi for them to market. As you know, Serum Institute is who we’ve been working with for multiple years to do so. That’s the transition period. That’s the milestone. The conviction to complete it really just comes from the methodical work we’ve been doing to date with a great partner.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: Okay, great. Maybe just a quick follow-up, Jim, on the supply sales piece. Is it right to assume this is essentially just reimbursement for the COGS on Novavax production? As you manage through the transition of manufacturing? I guess, is it for the most part on-time production, or do you still maybe manufacture some number of doses at risk? Thank you.

Jim Kelly, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Novavax: All right, excellent. Hey, so our supply sales, right? That’s a new component this year to our product sales, has two primary pieces. One is COVID-19 vaccine that we provide for Sanofi for them to sell, all right? That’s part one. Next year, that’s anticipated to be the final year we do that because we would have completed the tech transfer I described. Under our agreement with Sanofi, the intent is to have just a little bit of margin on top of our costs there. Think of it more as a just over break-even proposition. When you look at the other component of supply sales, it’s Matrix-M. It’s Matrix-M to all of our partners. That’s going to be a more durable stream of revenue, but with the same concept. The intent that, hey, listen, we’re really just trying to support our partners.

There’s a small margin there. What you’re witnessing with that part, and this is the Matrix supply sales in particular, is that as our partner unit volumes grow, and the example I’ll give you here that is really going great in volume is R21 malaria vaccine. You heard that since launch last year, approximately 25 million doses. What that’s doing is that’s driving us to a critical mass economies of scale for our Matrix manufacturing. What it does is it allows us to be efficient, right, to be right there for our partners. You also asked a question about just-in-time. The way this works, the cycle time, and I’ll speak just to the COVID right now, is that manufacturing effort really begins in the first quarter, right?

When you’re working through the different variants, you do PPQs, and you do a lot of that DS production early in the season. The more or closer to just-in-time is the DP fills. You do this so you can maximize shelf life. Those really begin to occur over the summer leading into the season. That’s the cycle time. That’s how production works.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: Great. Thank you.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: Our next question today will come from Tom Shrader at BTIG.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: Good morning. Thanks for all the details. A quick one on the Sanofi pandemic effort. Is there any guidance on the size the government stockpile would be? Would that be meaningful to you? Is there one royalty for Sanofi, or because this is a different type arrangement, is that a very different royalty back to you? I have a COVID follow-up.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Yeah, very good question, Tom. No, we do not have guidance on what the government may be targeting from a stockpiling perspective. I know there is some historical precedent there that you and our investor base could reference if needed. What we can say is it was not part of the original agreement on our partnership with Sanofi to include our Matrix-M in a pandemic flu because we are working on our own as well. We did agree. We worked with Sanofi to expand our agreement to now include the ability for them to use our Matrix-M with their flu vaccine. Look, frankly, it is good for business. Even more importantly, it is good for global public health to have options there if that were to hit.

We think it’s our responsibility, and it’s also a very good strengthening of our partnership and could provide a very lucrative opportunity should something like that hit. That being said, what we’ve left open and what we said on the last earnings call is, should Sanofi move forward and bring that forward and reach a certain point with it, there’s a point where we would then negotiate the terms in good faith with them around how the economics would work around that. Let’s hope for global public health’s sake that that opportunity is not there for these vaccine companies, including us. If it does come, we intend to stand ready, hopefully through partnering our own assets should we achieve a partnership there with our own flu. Secondarily, through Sanofi, of course. We’ll keep you posted.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: All right. A kind of a raging piece of the COVID world is the duration of protection of the mRNA vaccines. People are bashing this number all over the place. You could be a lot better. The question is, do you see that as a place you might do more clinical work to show your duration is really better? There are hints of it. Is that something you think you might do? Conversely, do you think it is something that might be thrust upon you? I know it is forward-looking, but thank you.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: No, very good question. We’ll hand that over to Rex and Andrew. Rex?

Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, Novavax: Yeah, that’s a very good question. There are some ongoing real-world evidence studies that are undertaken. Obviously, these are studies that last a little bit longer than just one season that are looking exactly at that, at the durability of protection. As the data is coming in, us and partners, we are sure that that type of data, it’s going to be published. As that entails large population studies, they’re typically undertaken by third parties, academic investigators, research institutes, your centers for disease control, because they do impact large swaths of the population. To make a long story short, that type of studies are ongoing, and we hope to see the results soon.

Eric Schmidt/Alec Stranahan/Tom Shrader, Analysts, Cantor/Bank of America/BTIG: Thank you.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: Our next question will come from Jeff Meacham at Citi. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Sean Lee, Analyst, HC Wainwright: Thank you. This is Mary Kate Davis on for Jeff this morning. Thanks for taking our questions. We’d love to talk through a little bit more of the strategy behind your early-stage pipeline and the impact here. Thank you for giving great detail so far this morning. It’s super helpful. You walked us through the progress towards IND and would love to dial in on the opportunities for early data updates and what they could look like. As a follow-up, just given the public health burden of these diseases, how are you looking at the opportunity of these chosen targets? Would you consider partnerships in this space as you move these programs forward? Thank you.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Hi. Thank you for the questions. I’ll let Rex dive in here in just a moment. We took a lot of time as a leadership team. As you know, we’re in transition with our company, and we’re in really chapter two of that transition, having moved away from a fully integrated commercial organization to an organization that has a great technology platform. It’s looking to out-license that, to partner that, and to generate additional opportunities to do that via our pipeline R&D innovation. That’s very important. We see our technology platform and our efforts through Rex and Andrew and our team in R&D as an engine that could generate additional and future ongoing opportunities to further partner our tech, to further expand it into new areas, even beyond infectious disease. You make a good point by saying, would you consider partnering those assets out of your pipeline?

It’s actually our intention to do so. What we have said in the past is that we retain the right, the ability to decide for ourselves. We will do that through continued economic stability, strengthening our P&L, strengthening our cash runway, and our financial framework for the company, which will be ongoing through this transition. We continue to do so to be able to have the choice if we do get a home run coming out of the pipeline. We want to keep that ourselves. We will consider that. Our model now is based on partnering with other pharmaceutical companies, keeping a lean and focused infrastructure, leveraging our technology and our assets to generate those revenues and those partnerships, and then the engine in R&D and innovation to create even new future opportunities. Part one. Part two, you asked about our strategy behind the pipeline.

Obviously, we looked at where the most significant unmet need lies around the globe. Where our technology, we believe, could have the best chance to help address those unmet needs and generate, with good odds in our opinion, competitive assets coming out of those efforts. Obviously, like any biotech company, there is never a guarantee that anything or everything you do out of your pipeline will succeed, but you deal with probabilities of success. We put a lot of time into placing the bets where we feel we have the best chance to win, the best odds to see one or more or multiple assets coming out in the future that could succeed. We stage-gate those things. This is typical for an organized, efficient, and professional biotech company to have stage-gate markers where you have go, no go decisions based on outcomes each step of the way.

Our entire philosophy on this is lean, intelligent investment to keep de-risking one step at a time. Each step, as we continue to succeed, we continue to approach the target product profile that we believe will be competitive, constantly assessing the competitive landscape to see if that needs to change. We got some questions from Chris and others on that today. Very good questions. We are thinking about that as a team. We are paying close attention. We are very careful with any dollar we put down on that bet. We will be willing to walk away at any time from an asset that is not delivering. We do not have pet projects here. We are running a business. We also want to have, secondarily to that, but very important to our employees and to us, our mission to impact global public health in a positive way. Hopefully, that addresses your question.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: Our final question today comes from Sean Lee at HC Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, Novavax: Hey, good morning, guys, and thanks for taking our question. I just have a higher level one on the longer-term projections that you guys had. Looking at the 2027 expense numbers, we see that the expenses are expected to come down by almost 50% compared to this year’s levels. I was wondering if you can provide some color on which areas you feel that you can cut the most from and what maybe there are what other areas you feel deserve additional investments. Thanks.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Sean, hi there, and appreciate the question. The primary step-downs in changes to our cost structure as we look at 2026 and 2027 are the following. 2026, what you’re seeing is that many of the transition activities that we’re doing with Sanofi, actually virtually all of them, are completed in 2026. You’re seeing that as we support Sanofi’s both commercialization through the form of manufacturing support, strain change, and continue to support their clinical efforts, right, completion of certain R&D and clinical study activities, those are hitting our financials. Our team is working on them through 2026, but they’re becoming smaller year over year, 2025 versus 2026. As we move into 2027, and these are virtually complete, you’re seeing the next step-down activity. It’s that $250 million net, right, which is our target.

Because you never know, maybe one of our partners might come back and say, "Do you mind doing some incremental work for us?" We say, "Certainly. Just cover our cost." It is that net number, which is our core spend target. It is that number that we’re driving towards. We think we have an excellent line of sight to get there.

Dr. Ruxandra Draghia, Head of R&D, Novavax: Great. Thanks for that.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: This concludes our question and answer session for today. I would like to turn the conference back over to John Jacobs for any closing remarks.

Louis Sanay, Vice President, Investor Relations, Novavax: Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We appreciate it. Look forward to speaking with you next time.

John Jacobs, President and CEO, Novavax: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.

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