Novavax Says Its Coronavirus Vaccine Is 90% Effective: What Are Its Benefits

The COVID-19 vaccine from the American firm Novavax is more than 90% effective, even against variants of the coronavirus, the American laboratory announced on Monday after a large-scale study in the United States and Mexico.

The vaccine “demonstrated 100% protection against moderate and severe disease, and an overall efficacy of 90.4%,” the company said in a statement, adding that “the study was conducted with 29,960 participants in 119 locations in the United States and Mexico to assess efficacy, safety and immunogenicity ”.

There were 77 cases of COVID-19, 14 in the group of people vaccinated and the rest in volunteers who received the placebo. None of the vaccinees showed moderate or severe symptoms, compared to 14 in the control group.

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The vaccine had similar effectiveness against various variants including the one identified for the first time in Great Britain and which is dominant in the United States, as well as in high-risk populations such as the elderly and those with other health conditions. The side effects were mostly mild, such as pain and pain at the injection site. No blood clots or unusual heart problems have been reported.

COVID-19 vaccines prepare the body to recognize the coronavirus, especially the glycoprotein that covers it, and prepare it to fight it. The Novavax vaccine is made from laboratory-grown copies of this protein. This is a different technology from other widely used vaccines, which include genetic instructions for the body to make its own glycoprotein. The Novavax vaccine can be stored in regular refrigerators, which simplifies its distribution.

NVX-CoV2373, technical name of the vaccine based on recombinant nanoparticle proteins, met the expectations for protection in phase 3 trials. “Today, Novavax takes one more step towards meeting the critical and persistent health need global public release of additional COVID-19 vaccines. These clinical results confirm that NVX-CoV2373 is extremely effective and provides comprehensive protection against moderate and severe COVID-19 infections, ”said Stanley C. Erck, CEO of the company.

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“Novavax continues to work with a sense of urgency to complete our regulatory dossiers and deliver this vaccine, built on a well-known and proven platform, to a world that is still in dire need of vaccines,” said the leader.

The company intends to seek regulatory approvals in the third quarter of this year, once the final process qualification and test validation steps have been completed necessary to meet US agency chemical, manufacturing and control requirements.

Novavax could achieve a manufacturing capacity of 100 million doses per month by the end of the third quarter of 2021 and 150 million doses per month by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021.

Gregory M. Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax, said the data “shows consistent and high levels of efficacy and reaffirms the vaccine’s ability to prevent COVID-19 amid genetic evolution by course of the virus “.