GAITHERSBURG, MD – A Gaithersburg-based fax developer has released some promising results from early human research.
Novavax Inc. said in a press release that his candidate for coronavirus vaccine – called NVX-CoV2373 – generated antibodies to fight the virus and was “generally well tolerated” in healthy adults.
The phase one trial included 131 participants between the ages of 18 and 59 years. It assessed two dose sizes – 5 and 25 micrograms – with and without a Matrix-M adjuvant (sometimes drugmakers use adjuvants in vaccines to enhance immune responses).
Volunteers received or:
- In placebo
- One dose of 25 micrograms of the vaccine, plus the adjuvant
- Two 25-microgram doses of the vaccine, plus the adjuvant
- Two 5-microgram doses of the vaccine, plus the adjuvant
- Two 25-microgram doses of the vaccine, no adjuvant
A visual can be found on page six of Novavax’s PowerPoint presentation.
According to researchers, none of the participants had a harsh reaction to the vaccine. However, some experienced side effects, such as tenderness, pain and fatigue – which disappeared after a few days.
Researchers also found that the vaccine, along with Matrix-M, “calls for robust antibody responses numerically superior to that seen in the human degenerative sera,” than people who have recovered from the new coronavirus.
Even with this promising data, it is too early to determine how effective the vaccine candidate is until a large-scale study is conducted.
The data for phase one have been submitted to a scientific journal for peer review.
Last month, Novavax was allocated $ 1.6 billion by the federal government to accelerate the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
The funds would cover the cost of producing 100 million doses of Novavax’s vaccine candidate, which would be delivered by early 2021. It is the largest deal to date from “Operation Warp Speed”, the COVID-19 vaccine program of the White House.
The United States has more cases of coronavirus than any other country in the world, with 4,895,868 positive infections, according to data released Friday by Johns Hopkins University. The death toll now stands at 160,255.
In Maryland, health officials reported more than 93,000 cases and 3,400 deaths.
