New Delhi: US-based Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate is highly effective against the UK variant, the vaccine development company said Thursday.
In a press statement, the company noted that the vaccine showed an efficacy of 85.6 per cent against the UK strain.
Meanwhile, results from the third phase of the trials have shown that Novavax’s vaccine has an efficacy of 89.3 per cent against the original strain.
However, the vaccine was not as effective against the South African variant with just 49.4 per cent efficacy.
“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,” Clive Dix, UK Vaccine Taskforce chairperson, noted in the statement.
NVX-CoV2373 is a protein-based vaccine and works by “teaching” the immune system to make antibodies against the spike protein.
Novavax also tied up with the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) in August last year for the development and commercial collaboration of their vaccine in India.
SII CEO Adar Poonawalla Friday confirmed the company has sought permission from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct a small domestic trial of the vaccine.
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The trials
The trials of the vaccine in the UK, included 15,000 participants between the ages of 18 and 84 with mild, moderate and severe symptoms.
An interim analysis was conducted on 62 cases, of which 56 cases of Covid-19 were observed in the placebo group while six cases were observed in the NVX-CoV2373 group. Fifty per cent of the 62 cases were found to be infected with the B.1.1.7 variant that was first reported in the UK.
“Based on PCR performed on strains from 56 of the 62 cases, efficacy by strain was calculated to be 95.6% against the original COVID-19 strain and 85.6% against the UK variant strain,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the South Africa Phase 2b clinical trial had enrolled 4,400 patients. Of these, 44 cases were observed — 29 from the placebo group and 15 in the vaccine group.
Sequencing data from 27 of the 44 found that 25 people had been infected with the South African variant.
The vaccine had a 60 per cent efficacy in 94 per cent of the trial’s participants who were HIV negative. Overall efficacy was, however, 49.4 per cent.
Stan Erck, CEO of Novavax, described the UK trial results as “spectacular” and the South African trial results as “above people’s expectations”.
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