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The American company Novavax announced Thursday that its vaccine had shown an effectiveness of 89.3 percent in a test in Great Britain. According to an initial interim analysis of a phase III study, the drug is almost as effective against newly discovered virus mutations.
15,000 people between the ages of 18 and 84 are taking part in the study in Great Britain. About half of the subjects received the vaccine, the other half an ineffective placebo. So far there have been 62 cases of Covid-19 among the participants, the majority of which, 56 cases, occurred in the placebo group. In contrast, there were only six cases among subjects vaccinated with the active ingredient.
A good quarter of the people in the test are over 65 years old. The study is intended to serve as the basis for the approval process in Britain, the EU and other countries. Keep running to get a statistically more reliable result based on more cases.
The infectious virus variant was already circulating
A few more vaccines are currently being tested; You can read an overview of the drugs likely to be approved next here.
The study was conducted during a period when the most contagious British variant was already in circulation. Preliminary analysis suggests that the vaccine was 85.6 percent effective against this mutation. The US company announced this in a press release, but Novavax did not provide the study data.
Novavax shares were up 20 percent in after-hours trading after the report was released. The United States reported the first cases of the South African variant on Thursday.
The pharmaceutical company announced that it began producing new versions of its vaccine to protect against emerging virus variants in early January. The company hopes to select the best candidates for this in the coming days. Clinical trials of these new vaccines are scheduled to begin in the second quarter of this year.
Novavax has also been conducting a study of 30,000 people in the United States and Mexico since December. The company has received $ 1.6 billion in funding from the United States government for the vaccine study and 100 million doses.
