Novavax COVID vaccine is only 50% effective against new strain

Novavax’s vaccine candidate is nearly 90% effective against COVID-19 – but just under 50% against the new South African variant of the virus, the company said Thursday.

A UK study found that the Novavax vaccine was 89.3% effective in protecting test participants from developing symptoms of COVID-19, the company said in a press release.

The good results came despite the new variant of the highly transmissible coronavirus which is now circulating in the UK.

“These are spectacular results, and we are very happy to have assisted Novavax in the development of this vaccine,” said Stanley C. Erck, who heads the Maryland-based company.

“The efficacy demonstrated against emerging variants is also extremely encouraging.

But more preliminary results from a small, separate study in South Africa – where a different mutation in the coronavirus is wreaking havoc – showed that the Novavax vaccine was only 49.4% effective, which means a little more than half of those tested received the vaccine and still became ill.

Moderna and Pfizer vaccines in use have been shown to be over 90% effective against COVID-19.

New York City had 22 cases of the new strain of British coronavirus on Thursday. The first two cases of the South African strain in the United States have just been discovered in South Carolina, officials said Thursday.

Modern said he was developing a vaccine booster to fight the strain first identified in South Africa.