"We are excited to report steady progress towards the development of a vaccine against RSV, an important virus that is the leading cause of viral death in infants," said Dr. Rahul Singhvi, President and CEO of Novavax.  "A safe and effective vaccine against RSV is especially needed in very young children since RSV infection does not provoke lasting immunity.  An effective vaccine would also be important in adults, especially the elderly, where RSV illness is common.  There is currently no approved vaccine for the prevention of RSV and the market potential for such a vaccine could exceed $1 billion annually."

In addition to completing this important preclinical study in cotton rats, Novavax today announced the successful scale up of the manufacturing process for the RSV-F vaccine candidate.   Material produced with this process under current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) is currently being used in a formal toxicology study in rabbits.