Name: Novavax CEO on why his Covid vaccine is 'demonstrably better' than Pfizer and Moderna
Uploaded: 2022-11-15
Duration: 7 min 3 s
Description: Stan Erck's goal is for people to say about Novavax 'they’re the best vaccine company'.

Stan Erck's goal is for people to say about Novavax "they’re the best vaccine company".

Novavax CEO on why his Covid vaccine is "demonstrably better" than Pfizer and Moderna

Leadership

Novavax CEO on why his Covid vaccine is better than others

Stan Erck's goal is for people to say about Novavax "they’re the best vaccine company"

stan thank you so much for joining us to talk about your company Novavax and your new covid vaccine. It was only a few months ago that you came out with the fourth vaccine in the U. S. So now you're competing against the fighter vaccine Moderna and johnson and Johnson tell us why would someone turn to the new Novavax vaccine compared to the established ones that have already been on the market for some time. We have some characteristics of our vaccine that make it more attractive. It's it's a very stable vaccine. It's it's it can be used at refrigerated temperatures. You don't have to go through the minus 20 or minus 70 degrees freezing. That makes it easier to use. I think that people recognize that this is a vaccine, a type of vaccine using a protein injected into the arm that that they've gotten all their lives with different vaccines, childhood vaccines and hepatitis vaccines. So so uh it's there's a comfort level and then there's data that suggests that our vaccine may last longer have have greater durability and and give you a breadth of protection as the virus changes over time and you get oh macron be a five and you get the next generation of of virus. It's hopeful that our vaccine is broad enough to protect against all of those. So how would you describe demand for the nova vax vaccine when you launched it a couple of months ago. Orders were weak. And your stock tumbles. What about now? Well you're talking about us. We've we've been in the global market for some time for instance in Korea and Japan were getting in Australia. We're getting a lot of acceptance of the vaccine has been available for a lot longer in the U. S. It's taken longer to get approvals. And so we're just only recently in the market. And so our expectation is that with data that we will be able to increase demand increased market share over the coming not only coming year but years with our vaccine. Well what's your strategy to compete with fighter and more derna? They've been selling millions of vaccines and boosters. And even now for kids, how do you compete with that? Every week? We get new sets of data that shows that that I I think allows me to predict that that our vaccine will be demonstrably better, more differentiated than the current vaccines. You know, it's taking you a little longer to get your vaccine out compared to Pfizer and Moderna. Do you think that even though Novavax has a good product, it's just too late. No, it's not too late. We're unfortunately we're stuck with Covid for a long time. And like flu, Covid is going to be bringing up new surprises to us from year to year. And I think that the vaccine that shows its most effective against these new variants is the one that ultimately will win. And I think that's our vaccine. Well, you mentioned a moment ago that your vaccine is protein based and it's what most people are used to receiving when they get vaccines. Has this made a difference in getting people who have been hesitant to get vaccinated to feel more comfortable using nova vax. Yeah. I think our vaccine would appeal to people who are vaccine hesitant because they don't understand vaccines very well. People were hesitant for because they don't understand the newest technology might just say good. I've been waiting for this and I'll use it. Well, have you gotten any feedback that your vaccine is getting to people who have been holding off from getting vaccinated by your competitors? Yes. We get a lot of feedback if you look at my if you look at my end basket in boxing my computer every day. I get lots of feedback from people who have said explained why they haven't gotten vaccinated for the past year or two. And now they're anxiously going to the pharmacy to get ours. And most people did don't know much about Novavax until Covid. It was a small struggling biotech company. But once the U. S. Government awarded your company more than $1.5 billion to develop a Covid vaccine, you were in the spotlight. You had already been Ceo for 10 years of the company but now suddenly the world was watching you, What was that like for you? We were actually too busy to pay much attention to that. Truthfully. And we went from I think it was january 12th when the gene sequence of covid became known. And we put all of our efforts? We took them off flu and put them on Covid. And truly, the team has been working seven days a week for the last 2.5 years. And there isn't a day that we don't have some meeting including Sundays and we started to face a phase three trial in the US on christmas day, Year before last. And so it's part of our life right now and will be for some time. Well when you started working a serious way on the COVID vaccine, the company had only 150 people. It didn't even have manufacturing capacity but still you were able to transform it into a global vaccine developer. What did it take for you to ramp up operations? A lot of energy. A lot of perseverance. We had early on some data in non human primates that showed that our vaccine worked really, really well and that those data usually translate well into humans and everybody in the scientific community recognize that. So we had lots of people who we had gained credibility and we were able to convince people to open up manufacturing capacity. Unfortunately that takes time. I mean usually it takes many years. We did it in many months. But but nevertheless it still takes time and we've gone from, as you say around 150 people in the U. S. And europe 2.5 years ago. And now we have over 2000 people and several manufacturing sites. How would you describe what you did as ceo to lead the project and to lead the team? I don't think there's anything magical. I think it's it's it's it's relatively easy when you've got, when you've been able to hire a good group of people and your mission is so so clear and and your technology and the tools you have are so unique. The people in the company that have joined the company in the past three years and have been working with it are all equally motivated because as I say, the mission is not just Covid, it's also Covid and flu and other vaccines. I don't have to do anything special to to motivate these people. They're self motivated. So what's next for Novavax? How do you want people describing the company 345 years from now? Nobody's ever built an independent vaccine company in the last 50 years or more. And I think that's exactly what Novavax is headed toward. Um and in five or 10 years I think I think everybody's going to know when they think vaccines they're going to think about Novavax because they're the best vaccine company