The vaccine, which requires two doses, was 89.3 percent effective overall in the pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial in the United Kingdom, but its protection plummeted in the South African trial, U.S. biotech Novavax Pharmaceuticals Inc. said today.
Novavax said it began work on a new vaccine for the new strain earlier this month and expects to select an ideal candidate in the next few days, followed by clinical trials in the second quarter.
Novavax’s NVX-CoV2373 vaccine is one of six vaccine candidates in the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine development program, which has received $1.75 billion in funding and is also in clinical trials in the U.S. and Mexico.
The mRNA vaccine, produced by Pfizer and Moderna, delivers mRNA from the spiny protein of the new coronavirus to the human body, producing a protein that neutralizes the virus and protects the body, while the Novavax vaccine injects the virus’ protein into the body to stimulate the production of antibodies.
The Novavax vaccine trial in the United Kingdom covered 15,000 subjects between the ages of 18 and 84, 27% of whom were over 65 years old.
The study showed that the Novavax vaccine provided 95.6 percent protection against the original Covid virus and 85.6 percent against the British variant, but in a smaller, mid-stage trial of just over 4,400 people, protection dropped to 49.4 percent against the South African variant.
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