Novavax ’s COVID-19 Vaccine Was Shown to be 51% Efficacious in South Africa, Where More Infectious Variants Are Spreading

In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Maryland-based biotech firm Novavax report that the company’s COVID-19 vaccine is 51% efficacious in protecting people from disease. The results come from a Phase 2 study of the two-dose vaccine, which uses a different technology than the three COVID-19 shots currently authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Currently authorized shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna both use an mRNA-based technology, while Johnson & Johnson-Janssen relies on an adenovirus to deliver SARS-CoV-2 genes to the body—both approaches work by training the body’s immune cells to make viral proteins that other immune cells then attack, so these defenses are then ready to target the SARS-CoV-2 virus when infection happens. Novavax designed its shot to already contain the viral protein, so when it’s injected into the body, it’s immediately targeted as foreign. In March, the company released results from its U.K.-based Phase 3 study, which showed that overall, the vaccine was 96% efficacious in protecting people from COVID-19 symptoms, and 86% efficacious in shielding them from the B.1.1.7. variant first identified in the U.K. Despite those promising results, Novavax has not yet filed a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization for its vaccine, although the company expected to do so several weeks after releasing its report. The recent NE...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news