Novavax’s vaccine candidate is nearly 90 percent effective against COVID-19 – but just under 50 percent effective against the new South African variant of the virus, the company announced on Thursday.
A UK study found that the Novavax vaccine was 89.3 percent effective in protecting test participants from developing COVID-19 symptoms, the company said in a press release.
The good results came despite the new, highly transmissible coronavirus variant now spreading in the UK.
“These are spectacular results, and we are very pleased that we helped Novavax develop this vaccine,” said Stanley C. Erck, who heads the company in Maryland.
‘The efficiency towards the emerging variants is also very encouraging.
But more preliminary results from a small, separate study in South Africa – where another mutation of the coronavirus wreaked havoc – showed that the Novavax shot was only 49.4 percent effective, meaning just over half of the subjects were stabbed and then became ill. .
Both vaccine Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been found to be more than 90 percent effective against COVID-19.
New York has 22 cases of the new British coronavirus strain since Thursday. The first two cases of the South African tribe in the US have just been found in South Carolina, officials announced on Thursday.
Modern said it was developing a vaccine enhancer to combat the strain, which was first identified in South Africa.