Novavax Vaccine is Effective against COVID-19

Jul, 2021 - By WMR

A team of scientists from the U.K. revealed that the vaccine Novavax (NVX-CoV2373) is effective against COVID-19.

The NVX-CoV2373 is a Matrix-M1 adjuvant vaccine against COVID-19. It has been observed that the vaccine is effective in healthy adult volunteers in earlier clinical trials. Two doses of the vaccine are given for full immunization at a time span of 21 days. It is significant to mention that the vaccine is even effective against the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant.

The researchers conducted the trial in 33 places in the U.K. when the Alpha variant was mainly circulating. 15,187 seronegative adult volunteers aged 18 to 84 years, excluding pregnant women, were considered for this study. The participants were divided into two groups: vaccine group and placebo group. These participants were further categorized on the basis of their medical conditions: healthy or with chronic medical conditions such as cardiorespiratory, hepatic, renal, HIV infection, and others. The volunteers in the vaccine group were given two vaccine doses 21 days apart, while the volunteers in placebo group received normal saline. The primary result of the trial shows that the vaccine was effective in case of mild, moderate, or severe COVID-19 in individuals who contracted the virus at least 7 days after receiving second vaccine dose. The researchers considered 2,310 volunteers for analyzing the safety of the vaccine. It was found that after administering both the vaccine doses, a significant number of volunteers in the vaccine group reported symptoms such as headache, fatigue, pain at the injection site, and others in comparison to placebo group. It is significant to mention that due to COVID-19 one volunteer in each of the group died during the trial period. Moreover, after seven days of receiving the second dose, 10 volunteers from the vaccine group and 96 from the placebo group contracted mild, moderate, or severe COVID-19. The researchers considered all these factors and estimated that the efficacy rate of the vaccine was around 89.7%.

The overall trial findings of the study shed light on the fact that the NVX-CoV2373 vaccine effectively prevents infections by SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.