Novavax COVID-19 vaccine discussed by disease expert
Novavax has created the world’s next successful vaccine candidate, as it reported high efficacy for its jab. Researchers concluded 89 percent effectiveness, meaning it matches the other jabs now widely used in the UK. The Government has also procured tens of millions of doses to add to its growing arsenal.
What is in the Novavax vaccine?
Novavax has reported 89.3 percent efficacy rates in its NVX-CoV2373 vaccine, similar to those of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca jabs.
The company’s success will see 60 million doses bought by the Government soon go into circulation, if it’s approved by the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
The Novavax jab gives officials four distinct candidates to work with, but it doesn’t work in quite the same way as its rivals.
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The basic mechanisms of the jab are the same, as they teach the body how to react to the Covid spike protein.
But researchers developed this response by creating a baculovirus – a virus altered by a modified gene.
They then allowed the baculovirus to infect insect cells, prompting a spike protein reaction.
Scientists then reassembled the protein into a near match of Covid-19 with nanoparticles.
Much like any other vaccine, Novavax’s assembled protein will prompt responses once injected and prepare the body for real-life Covid infection.
But the manufactured version does not come with the risks associated with natural infection, and it cannot cause the virus.
As such, people who receive NVX-CoV2373 will have immune systems primed to ward off Covid-19 more than 89 percent of the time.
The jab also comes with the added benefit of proven effectiveness against Covid variants.
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Phase three trial results showed the Novavax jab protected against both the UK and South African Covid variants.
The trial returned high effectiveness while using a wide range of participants, 50 percent of whom had cases attributable to the UK variant.
Phase 2b trials arrived at similar effectiveness when composed of participants “with over 90 percent of sequenced cases attributable to prevalent South Africa escape variant”.
Scientists tested over 20,000 participants to return the results they announced yesterday.
Stanley Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax, hailed results of the latest trials.
He said: “With today’s results from our UK Phase three 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 randomised 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.”
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