GAITHERSBURG, Md., March 28, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq:NVAX), a clinical-stage vaccine company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of recombinant nanoparticle vaccines and adjuvants, today announced Gale Smith, Ph.D., Vice President, Vaccine Development, will present, "Recombinant EBOV/Makona Glycoprotein (GP) Nanoparticle Vaccine Produced in Sf9 Insect Cells," at the 7^th International Symposium on Filoviruses, Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 10:15 a.m. at the Washington Marriott Metro Center in Washington, D.C.

As part of his talk, Dr. Smith will present new data from a second non-human primate (NHP) study which was conducted by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (NIH-NIAID-DMID). In that study, animals received two injections of a 5µg dose of Novavax' Ebola GP Vaccine together with its proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant and were then challenged with a lethal dose of the Ebola virus. Similar to the previous NHP study, the challenge was lethal for the control animals, whereas the animals immunized with Novavax' EBOV GP Vaccine remain healthy 18 days post challenge.

"This data provides significant, independent confirmation that our Ebola GP Vaccine is safe and effective in providing protection in NHP models," said Dr. Smith. "Our vaccine is the first subunit Ebola GP-based vaccine to provide protection in non-human primates and this confirmatory data strongly supports the advancement of this program. Importantly, although we developed our Ebola GP Vaccine from the Makona strain, which is the strain responsible for the recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa, these primates were challenged with the Kikwit strain of Ebola, which suggests that our vaccine candidate may be protective across different variants of the virus."

Novavax is currently conducting a Phase 1 clinical trial of its Ebola GP Vaccine in healthy subjects. It expects top-line data from this trial in mid-2015.

About Novavax

Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq:NVAX) is a clinical-stage vaccine company committed to delivering novel products to prevent a broad range of infectious diseases. Our recombinant nanoparticles and Matrix-M(TM) adjuvant technology are the foundation for groundbreaking innovation that improves global health through safe and effective vaccines. Additional information about Novavax is available on the company's website, www.novavax.com.

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CONTACT: Novavax, Inc.
        
         Barclay A. Phillips
         SVP, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
        
         Andrea N. Flynn, Ph.D.
         Senior Manager, Investor Relations
        
         ir@novavax.com
         240-268-2000