Novavax Highlights Matrix-M Licensing Push, Oncology Ambitions at Cantor Conference

Novavax NASDAQ: NVAX outlined its strategy to expand the use of its Matrix-M adjuvant platform through licensing partnerships, internal research programs and commercialization alliances, with management highlighting progress in infectious disease vaccines and early oncology work at the Cantor Healthcare Conference.

Chief Executive Officer John Jacobs said the company has shifted over the past three years from a business centered on commercializing its COVID-19 vaccine to one focused on licensing its technology to larger pharmaceutical partners while maintaining selective internal research and development efforts.

Jacobs said Novavax has reduced its expense base by 80% to 90% over that period while retaining key capabilities and establishing a cash runway of more than two years. The company formally launched its updated strategy in January 2025, he said.

Jacobs said four of the world’s 10 largest pharmaceutical companies are now working with Novavax, including direct license partners Sanofi and Pfizer, as well as companies operating under material transfer agreements, or MTAs. Under MTAs, partners gain access to Novavax technology for experimentation in their own laboratories.

According to Jacobs, one newly signed top-10 pharmaceutical partner is also a global oncology leader. Across its partnerships, Novavax currently has about 30 distinct areas of exploration spanning infectious diseases, oncology targets, tumor types, viral and bacterial diseases, and vaccine platforms.

Bob Walker, Novavax’s head of research and development, described Matrix-M as a saponin-based adjuvant currently used in two commercially available vaccines: Nuvaxovid, the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, and the R21 malaria vaccine. He said R21 is World Health Organization pre-qualified and has been administered to millions of children in Africa.

Walker said the company has safety and tolerability experience from tens of millions of people who have received Matrix-M-containing vaccines. He also said the adjuvant can be antigen-sparing, allowing a lower dose of antigen while seeking the same immune benefit, which may offer manufacturing and production-cost advantages.

Novavax is evaluating Matrix-M in difficult-to-treat or difficult-to-prevent infectious diseases, including a C. difficile vaccine candidate that Walker said the company is working to advance into the clinic. Jacobs said the candidate could enter the clinic as early as next year.

Management also emphasized the company’s oncology ambitions. Walker said th