Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine is over 90% effective, firm says
American firm Novavax's coronavirus vaccine has been found safe and over 90% effective, including against some variants, the company announced on Monday. The results are from a phase-three clinical trial of nearly 30,000 participants conducted at 119 sites across the United States and Mexico. The jab will be a fourth vaccine option for the US after vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
In a statement issued today, the company said the vaccine provides 100% protection from moderate or severe disease of COVID-19 and 90% protection overall. It also has a 93% efficacy against "predominantly circulating Variants of Concern and Variants of Interest." "Novavax #COVID19 Vaccine Demonstrates 90% Overall Efficacy and 100% Protection Against Moderate and Severe Disease in PREVENT-19 Phase 3 Trial," the company tweeted today.
NEW DATA RELEASE: Novavax #COVID19 Vaccine Demonstrates 90% Overall Efficacy and 100% Protection Against Moderate and Severe Disease in PREVENT-19 Phase 3 Trial https://t.co/lIOiQXxDtD pic.twitter.com/4ePHxDpziZ
— Novavax (@Novavax) June 14, 2021
The Maryland-based company has said that it intends to apply for regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the third quarter of 2021 or September. The firm also said it is on track to take the production capacity to 100 million (10 crore) doses per month and 150 million (15 crore) doses by the end of this year.
"Today, Novavax is one step closer to addressing the critical and persistent global public health need for additional COVID-19 vaccines," said company president and CEO Stanley Erck. "Novavax continues to work with a sense of urgency to complete our regulatory submissions and deliver this vaccine, built on a well understood and proven platform, to a world that is still in great need of vaccines."
A special benefit offered by the Novavax vacccine - formally called NVX-CoV2373 - is it does not need to be stored at ultra-low temperatures. The company says it can be stored at 2-8 degree Celsius - implying it would be easier to transport. In India, the jab will be manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, which already makes the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Given the US has already provided a coronavirus vaccine shot to over half its population and has enough stocks for the rest, the Novavax vaccine would be needed more elsewhere. In fact, many African nations have vaccinated less than 1% of their populations while India, which faced the world's worst coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, has vaccinated just 3.4% of its total population.
Novavax is also reportedly applying in Britain, the European Union, India, and South Korea. Erck, the company executive, said in an interview Novavax would probably get its first authorization somewhere outside the US.
