Japan has agreed to purchase 150 million doses of the Takeda-produced Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, the drugmaker announced on Tuesday. The pharmaceutical company and Japan’s biggest drugmaker said in a statement that it is preparing to manufacture the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine domestically for distribution beginning early next year, pending approval from regulators. Takeda noted that the vaccine is still undergoing clinical trials in Japan. Novavax is licensing and transferring manufacturing technologies to enable Takeda to manufacture the vaccine, the company said. The latest agreement follows an earlier deal between the pharmaceutical company and the Japanese government to manufacture approximately 250 million doses of the Novavax vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Made using protein-based technology, the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine works by introducing spike protein of the virus made in moth cells and an adjuvant made from natural soapbark tree extract to the immune system. It does …