(Reuters) -Novavax cut its annual revenue forecast on Tuesday, citing lower-than-expected sales of its COVID-19 vaccine, ahead of handing over the rights to sell the shot to French drugmaker Sanofi. Shares of the U.S. biotech firm fell 3% to $8.73.

Novavax has made a smaller splash in the U.S. Covid-19 vaccine market than it had hoped. But it's betting on licensing deals and a pipeline of new vaccines it's now evaluating for R&D.

The FDA had put a clinical hold on Novavax’s COVID-19-influenza combo vaccine after an adverse event in a patient.