Asian Tech Press (Sep 7) -- Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK), Japan's largest pharmaceutical company, announced Tuesday that the Japanese government will purchase 150 million doses of Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine candidate produced by Takeda.

In the announcement, Takeda said it is establishing the capacity to produce the COVID-19 vaccine in Japan. And the vaccine, TAK-019, known outside Japan as NVX-CoV2373, is expected to begin distribution in early calendar year 2022.

In February, Takeda and the U.S. biotechnology company Novavax, Inc. entered into a license agreement for the COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Japan, and Takeda initiated a Phase 1/2 trial in Japan

Takeda previously announced the availability of a rapid and sustained COVID-19 vaccine in Japan through a partnership with Novavax and Moderna Inc.

The Japanese firm has received a transfer of manufacturing technology from Novavax and been responsible for the development and commercialization of 250 million doses of the vaccine.