A company known as Novavax has announced on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has demonstrated 100 percent protection against moderate and severe cases of the coronavirus in its North American trial with an overall efficacy rate of 90.4 percent.
The trial the company conducted featured 29,960 participants across 119 different locations within both the U.S. and Mexico. A total of 77 cases were observed in total, with 63 of those cases being a placebo group and 14 individuals receiving the actual vaccine. All of the cases of coronavirus in the group that took the vaccine were mild with all hospitalizations occurring in the placebo group.
The results also showed a 91% efficacy rate among high-risk populations, which include those over the age of 65 and those under with certain comorbidities, and a 93% efficacy rate against predominant variants of the virus.
“These data show consistent, high levels of efficacy and reaffirm the ability of the vaccine to prevent COVID-19 amid ongoing genetic evolution of the virus,” Dr. Gregory M. Glenn, who serves as the president of research and development for Novavax, stated in a recent press release. “Our vaccine will be a critical part of the solution to COVID-19 and we are grateful to the study participants and trial staff who made this study possible, as well as our supporters, including the U.S. Government.”
Novavax, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said it plans to file for authorization of its vaccine during the third quarter and expects a monthly manufacturing capacity of 100 million doses by the third quarter’s end. By the end of the fourth quarter, the company expects to be putting out 150 million doses per month.
Like the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, two of the three coronavirus vaccines currently authorized in the U.S., the Novavax vaccine requires two doses, though it uses a protein-based technology rather than messenger RNA like the others.
Information known as of Monday reveals that 64.4 percent of adults in the United States have been given at least one dose of the vaccine, with another 86.8 percent of those over the age of 65 having received at least one dose with 52.4 percent of the adult population being fully vaccinated.
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