Novavax said that a final analysis of the results of a clinical trial on their coronavirus vaccine shows that it is 96% effective in preventing infection from the original strain of COVID-19. The vaccine's effectiveness against the more infectious U.K. variant is 86% and drops to 55% against the South African variant.
There were no cases of severe illness or death in people who received the vaccine.
"I did not think it was possible to have a vaccine prevent 96% of any respiratory disease," Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax, said. "That's outstanding, and I'm personally ecstatic. If you had asked me a year ago [to predict] the very best vaccine we could expect, I would have said 80% or 85% efficacy against any respiratory disease would be pretty amazing."
Novavax said it is working on altering the vaccines to make them more effective against new variants and hope to begin clinical trials on those vaccines later this year.
The company is planning to submit its vaccine for regulatory approval in the United Kingdom and several other countries. It could be approved in the United States as early as May if regulators decide to use the data from the company's clinical trial in the U.K. to make their decision.
Novavax is planning to wrap up a clinical trial in the U.S. and Mexico in April. If regulators wait for Novavax to finish the trial and analyze the data, it could be several additional months before the vaccine is available in the United States.
The U.S. has invested $1.6 billion in Novavax's vaccine and has secured 100 million doses once it is approved. The company said it should have factories churning out the vaccine by April and expects to have tens of millions of doses ready to ship out if it is granted an emergency use authorization.
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