Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine is 89.3% effective

A small company that has been developing new vaccines since Reagan was president, Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) announced Thursday afternoon its first clinical trial victory in the endgame. The company’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, reduced volunteers’ chances of contracting COVID-19 by 89.3% compared to a placebo.

Novavax’s first victory in a Phase 3 clinical trial comes from a study of 15,000 patients in the UK. The majority of the positive cases reported have been in the now predominant British variant. NVX-CoV2373 appears to be just as effective at preventing the British variant as the original strain of coronavirus.

Investigators performed an interim scan after 62 participants tested positive for COVID-19. All but six were in the placebo group. With a 95% confidence interval adjustment, this corresponds to an overall efficacy rate of 89.3%.

Of the 62 cases mentioned above, 32 had the British strain, 24 had the original strain and six were unknown. recipe.

Unfortunately for those of us in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is unwilling to consider an emergency use authorization application without the results of a primarily national Phase 3 study. The company has randomized more than 16,000 patients in a North American trial designed to meet FDA requirements. Its total recruitment target is 30,000 patients.