One of the world's first COVID-19 vaccines is set to be manufactured in the Czech Republic

Hundreds of pharmaceutical companies around the world have been racing to develop a COVID-19 vaccine over the past six months, but only a few have made it through to clinical trials.

One of only 15 companies to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to Phase II clinical trials is the U.S. firm Novavax, which has recently begun Phase II trials of its vaccine, NVX-CoV2373.

Over the next weeks, about 1,500 adults in the United States and Australia – more than half of them over the age of sixty – will take part in trials to study the effects of the vaccine.

If everything goes well, the vaccine is expected to go into production at the beginning of next year. Right here in Prague.

In May, Novavax acquired the Czech vaccine manufacturing facility Praha Vaccines, which is actually located in Bohumil, about 20 kilometers east of Prague, for about 3.5 billion crowns. They bought the Czech plant with the expressed intent to use it to manufacture NVX-CoV2373.

Today, Praha Vaccines announced that they intend to start production on the vaccine early next year, and produce up to one billion doses.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš toured the Praha Vaccines facility shortly after the announcement.

“Novavax wants to produce two billion doses of coronavirus vaccine globally, of which one billion will be here in the Czech Republic,” Babiš stated.

Next month, Praha Vaccines will seek permission from the Czech State Office for Drug Control to conduct clinical trials of NVX-CoV2373 in the Czech Republic, potentially adding hundreds of local residents to the clinical trial pool from October.

“About 300 of our fellow citizens will be selected to take part in [the clinical trials],” Babiš added.

Czech epidemiologist Roman Prymula, who accompanied Babiš to Praha Vaccines, assured local residents that there was no danger in producing the vaccine outside of Prague.

“This vaccine is based on a protein that is not infectious,” Prymula stated.

“That means there is no work with a live virus, there is only a carrier that is an insect virus, it cannot infect anyone. I want to emphasize that there is absolutely zero risk for our population.”

Production of the vaccine locally could have a big impact for the Czech Republic.

“Our presence in the Czech Republic, especially in the Bohumil production plant, is very important for the company and also for its future investments,” Novavax President and CEO Stanley C. Erck stated today.

“The Czech Republic has a lot to offer, and so do we.”