Novavax, based in Maryland, has never marketed a vaccine. The Trump administration has allocated $ 1.6 billion to the company to develop and test the vaccine, start large-scale manufacturing and discuss 100 million doses.
Trial details: Novavax tested its vaccine in the UK during a period when another variant of the virus – first detected in the UK and more transmissible than earlier versions – began circulating. The company’s analysis of the Phase III trial of 15,000 people found that the vaccine was 95.6 per cent effective against the original Covid-19 strain and 85.6 per cent effective against the British variant, B.1.1.7.
Early data from a separate Phase IIb clinical trial of 4400 people in South Africa found that the vaccine was only 49.4 percent effective compared to the variant first discovered in that country. More than 92 percent of the consecutive PCR samples taken from Covid patients in the South African trial were identified as the variant, known as B.1.351.
Novavax says it is developing enhancement shots of its vaccine to better protect against new strains of Covid and plans to test it in humans in the second quarter of 2021.