The biotechnology company Novavax said on Thursday that its coronavirus vaccine was more than 89% effective in protecting against Covid-19 in its UK phase three clinical trial.
The results were based on 62 infections confirmed by Covid-19 among the 15,000 study participants. The company said 56 cases were seen in the placebo group versus six cases seen in the vaccine group. This resulted in an estimated vaccine effectiveness of 89.3%, he said.
The company’s shares rose more than 23% on the floor.
With the results, the company “has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis,” said Novavax CEO Stanley Erck in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with our partners, employees, researchers and regulators around the world to make the vaccine available as soon as possible.”
The study also found that the vaccine appeared to be 85.6% effective against the UK variant, also known as B.1.1.7. A separate phase two study in South Africa showed that the vaccine is not as effective against a new strain that is devastating that country.
The injection was still considered effective in protecting against the virus, but with an efficacy rate of only 49.4% among the 44 Covid-19 cases in South Africa, where 90% of cases contain the new worrying variant, the company said .
As a result of lesser effectiveness against the strain in South Africa, Novavax said it plans to choose a modified version of the vaccine to better protect itself against the new strain “in the coming days”. She plans to test the modified vaccine in the second quarter of this year.
Novavax is among several companies that develop a vaccine to fight the virus, which infected more than 101 million people worldwide and killed at least 2.2 million by Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Only two vaccines – from Pfizer and Moderna – have been authorized for use in the United States so far.
In July, the United States government, as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, announced that it would pay Novavax $ 1.6 billion to develop and manufacture the potential vaccine, with the goal of delivering 100 million doses until the beginning of 2021.
It is unclear whether Thursday’s data will be sufficient for Novavax to receive an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration that would allow distribution in the United States. December.
The Novavax vaccine contains synthesized chunks of the surface protein that the coronavirus uses to infect humans. The company said the vaccine was well tolerated, adding that “serious, serious and physician-assisted adverse events occurred at low levels and were balanced between the vaccine and placebo groups.”
In August, the company said that data from the phase one test found that its vaccine generated a promising immune response. Participants received two doses of the potential vaccine via intramuscular injection approximately 21 days apart. Novavax also said the vaccine was well tolerated, with no serious adverse events reported.