The European Union could sign a Covid-19 vaccine supply deal with US manufacturer Novavax in the coming two weeks, two EU officials involved in the talks with the firm said.
The EU concluded preliminary negotiations with Novavax in December for the supply of 100 million doses and an option for another 100 million.
"Talks with Novavax have intensified, and we aim to agree the contract this week or next," one EU official said.
A second EU official involved in the talks confirmed the possible timetable for a deal, but added discussions with the company's legal representatives were still under way, declining to elaborate on outstanding issues.
Novavax said negotiations were ongoing.
A spokesperson for the EU Commission declined to comment on the talks, but added the EU was willing to expand its portfolio of Covid-19 vaccines.
The company's shares were up by 2.3 per cent in premarket trade after Reuters reported a deal with the EU was close.
Last week the EU's drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it had launched a real-time review of Novavax's vaccine to speed up potential approvals.
The vaccine is still being trialled, but preliminary data showed the jab was 89.3 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 in a trial conducted in the United Kingdom, and was nearly as effective in protecting against the more highly contagious variant first discovered in the UK.
If it goes ahead, the deal would be the seventh sealed by the EU with vaccine makers for Covid-19 shots.
The EU has already struck agreements with AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer-BioNTech, CureVac, Moderna and Sanofi-GSK for a total of approximately 2.3 billion doses.
