Story at a glance
- Novavax’s clinical data reveals a 89.8 percent efficacy rate, which fluctuated depending on the COVID-19 strain.
- The U.S. recently detected the first cases of the South African variant in South Carolina.
Pharmaceutical company Novavax released results Thursday from its clinical trial data for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, finding that its vaccine carries an 89.3 percent efficacy rate in phase three trials.
Trials were conducted in the United Kingdom. The vaccine contains the genetic sequence of the COVID-19 spike protein, and is designed to be stable at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, similar to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
“With today’s results from our UK Phase 3 and South Africa Phase 2b clinical trials, we have now reported data on our COVID-19 vaccine from Phase 1, 2 and 3 trials involving over 20,000 participants. In addition, our PREVENT-19 US and Mexico clinical trial has randomized over 16,000 participants toward our enrollment goal of 30,000. NVX-CoV2373 is the first vaccine to demonstrate not only high clinical efficacy against COVID-19 but also significant clinical efficacy against both the rapidly emerging UK and South Africa variants,” said Stanley C. Erck, president and CEO of Novavax.
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Phase three trials enrolled 15,000 participants between ages 18 and 84, and featured a placebo-controlled study.
Fifty-six cases were recorded in the placebo group, whereas six cases were reported in the group that received the vaccine. The six cases were classified as either “moderate” or “mild,” while a single infection from the placebo group was “severe,” indicating Novavax’s candidate reduces the risk of serious illness.
Notably, researchers found that the U.K. COVID-19 mutation was particularly prominent among the cases recorded in the study, with 32 of the 62 infections being identified as the U.K. variant.
Scientists determined that efficacy by strain was largely positive; against the original COVID-19 variant, Novavax’s vaccine was 95.6 percent effective. Against the UK mutation, the vaccine candidate was 85.6 percent effective.
“These are spectacular results, and we are very pleased to have helped Novavax with the development of this vaccine. The efficacy shown against the emerging variants is also extremely encouraging. This is an incredible achievement that will ensure we can protect individuals in the UK and the rest of the world from this virus,” Clive Dix, the chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce said in the statement.
When testing against the South African variant, however, Novavax’s data reported a 60 percent efficacy rate.
Like the U.K. mutation, the South African COVID-19 strain features major changes in the spike protein’s binding receptors, making it more contagious. Researchers note that the South Africa study was conducted in August, before experts were made aware of any mutant COVID-19 strains.
“The 60% reduced risk against COVID-19 illness in vaccinated individuals in South Africans underscores the value of this vaccine to prevent illness from the highly worrisome variant currently circulating in South Africa, and which is spreading globally,” said Professor Shabir Maddi, executive director of the vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit at Wits, and principal investigator in the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine trial in South Africa.
“This is the first COVID-19 vaccine for which we now have objective evidence that it protects against the variant dominating in South Africa.”
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