About Stanley Erck
Stanley Erck, who served as CEO of Novavax until his retirement in early 2023, oversaw the company's transition from a clinical-stage biotech to a commercial vaccine manufacturer during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a January 2023 interview, Erck stated that the company had grown from fewer than 100 employees and less than $100 million in funding to over 2,000 employees and more than $1 billion in cash, and had generated $2 billion in revenue in 2022. He described the company's COVID-19 vaccine as "best-in-class" in terms of efficacy, safety, and stability, and noted that it had been approved in 47 countries. Erck also said the U.S. was "the last country" to approve the vaccine, and that the company was working with the FDA to expand its label for all age groups and booster use.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, Erck frequently discussed the company's manufacturing scale-up and global distribution strategy. He stated that Novavax had built manufacturing capacity in eight countries, including partnerships with the Serum Institute of India, and aimed to produce "a couple billion doses" per year. Erck emphasized the vaccine's advantages, including storage at refrigerated temperatures and a nine-month shelf life. He also noted that the company was developing a combined flu-COVID vaccine and an Omicron-specific variant vaccine. On the company's financial outlook, Erck projected full-year 2022 revenue of $4 to $5 billion, though the company later slashed that guidance by about 50% due to lower-than-expected demand, particularly from the COVAX facility.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Stanley Erck's recent appearances.
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Transcript (13 segments)
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Anjali Kamlani0:05
Shares of Novavax continuing to fall sharply this morning after the Maryland-based biotech company slashed its full-year revenue guidance by about 50%. The company no longer expects any revenue from the vaccine alliance COVAX due to soft demand and also due to its later entry into the US market, causing it to lose ground to Pfizer and Moderna. Joining us now to discuss these shortfalls is Novavax CEO Stanley Erck. Stan, sorry for the setup there, but this is the situation that you guys find yourselves in. You are a one product company at this point, and the product is not selling as well as you perhaps hoped. So I would ask you, kind of simply, what now?
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Stanley Erck0:47
Well, the good news is we have, I think, the number one vaccine in terms of characteristics. We have very good efficacy data. We have broadly neutralizing antibodies from our vaccine that actually stimulate antibodies against everything all the way through BA.5 that you've heard about, good safety profile, easy to use, it's refrigerated. So the fundamentals of the vaccine are great, and we're transitioning into a commercial market from now until next year, and I think it takes time to do that. I think the issue with respect to COVAX is that they are supplying low and middle income markets around the globe, and there's been a lot of vaccine available to those markets. So we've put off any projections of sales to COVAX this year, and I don't know what's going to happen next year for COVAX. In the US, you know, as we just got our emergency use authorization, which is terrific news, and we're going into the market now. What we need to do is get a couple indications for boosting and for adolescents, both of which we've applied for, and our expectations are that we'll get those approvals hopefully soon, but we're depending upon the FDA for those approvals right now. So the uncertainty is the uptake this year, but we're forecasting as conservatively as possible, and I think next year we're setting the stage for next year.
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Anjali Kamlani2:23
Stan, I know that you talked about that booster market. You said on the call that you won't be able to make that October deadline for the booster campaign on that BA.5, but you're still looking at broadly that booster market as a key target at this point. Do you think you just might be too late?
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Stanley Erck2:40
No, I don't think we're too late. I think the booster that we have for the Wuhan strain, or the 2373, our current product, we have great data that shows our vaccine works very well against all of the different variants that have circulated. So our expectation is the vaccine will be very useful for that. And then with the BA.5, we're making that now; it'll be available later this year.
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Anjali Kamlani3:09
So let's recap what's going on: you're looking at the booster market still later in the year for that BA.5, you're getting not as strong demand from the global market as you anticipated with relation to COVAX, and in the US you're not anticipating any new orders for the year. Does that include the boosters then?
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Stanley Erck3:30
No, we're not forecasting something that we don't have yet. I anticipate, well, we're waiting to hear. We're talking with the US government. I just, we don't have a forecast right now.
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Anjali Kamlani3:43
And when you think about some of the changes that the company is going to be looking to make going forward, how do you look across research and development to make sure that even in some of the future efforts that Novavax does have, it doesn't fall behind or have a candidate that comes to the scene a little bit later than some of the other competitors? Are you looking across executive or management changes even with regards to that?
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Stanley Erck4:06
No, I think we have a very strong platform. The platform, as I think we've mentioned on this show before, includes other respiratory vaccines. We have a flu vaccine; I think it's been tested in combination with our COVID vaccine. We've completed a Phase 1/2 trial, and we're starting a new Phase 2 trial that will lead to a Phase 3 efficacy trial next year. I think we're very strong, the platform is very strong, particularly in respiratory vaccines.
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Anjali Kamlani4:37
Stan, looking at the output then, manufacturing-wise, do you anticipate that this will disrupt those global manufacturing partners that you have, including the Serum Institute and SK, or are you seeing a difference in the US and low-middle income demand versus other countries?
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Stanley Erck4:55
Now, I think, first of all, let me address the manufacturing. Coming late to the game, we started without any manufacturing capacity two and a half years ago, and we've built a tremendous network of manufacturing right now. With the plants that you mentioned, in Serum in India, and the Czech Republic, and SK in Korea, we have plenty of manufacturing capacity to serve all the markets that we're addressing.
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Anjali Kamlani5:20
Stan, finally, I would ask you, as you look at the situation where you guys find yourselves right now, any lessons learned from the past six months that you can now apply going forward, not just for the COVID vaccine development and manufacturing but also for further things in the pipeline?
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Stanley Erck5:44
Well, when the book's written, I'll be able to tell you what all the lessons learned are.
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Anjali Kamlani5:50
Yeah, I guess when you're in the midst of it, it's a little tricky to say. Stanley, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it. Stanley Erck, Novavax CEO.
