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However, other results have shown that the vaccine provides less protection against the highly contagious strain of the coronavirus, first identified in South Africa and now spreading rapidly around the world.
Novavax said it began developing new vaccines against emerging strains in early January and hopes to select ideal candidates in the coming days and launch clinical trials in the second quarter of this year.
“NVX-CoV2373 has the potential to play a key role in addressing this global public health crisis,” said Stanley Erck, CEO of the company, referring to the name of the Novavax vaccine.
“We want to continue working with our partners, collaborators, researchers and regulators around the world so that the vaccine is available as soon as possible,” he stressed.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter that the published results are “good news.”
“Our drug regulator will now evaluate this vaccine, which will be produced at Tisaide. Yes [ji] It will be confirmed, we have asked for 60 million. dose, ”he added.
The vaccine is among six candidates endorsed by a US government project formerly known as Operation Warp Speed. According to him, the company received 1.75 billion. dollars (1,450 million euros). Vaccine trials are also underway in the United States and Mexico, where 16,000 people have been used. 30 thousand. Participants.
Unlike Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, vaccines that carry genetic instructions that force human cells to produce an important viral protein, Novavax is used to inject proteins directly into the body that elicit an immune response.
“Still pretty good” against B.1.351
15,000 people participated in the tests in Great Britain. People between 18 and 84 years old, of which 27% were older than 65 years.
The first preliminary analysis was based on 62 cases of infection. There were 56 cases of COVID-19 in the placebo group and six cases in the NVX-CoV2373 group.
The company’s preliminary analysis showed that the virus strain B.1.1.7, first identified in Great Britain, was detected in more than 50% of cases. confirmed cases.
It was found to be 95.6 percent. efficacy against the initial strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus and 85.6% efficacy against variety B.1.1.7.
However, the protection provided by the vaccine has been shown to be less during the more modest midterm trials in South Africa.
From September to mid-January, just over 4.4 thousand people participated in this study. patients. During this period, PAR spread the B.1.351 virus with significant mutations in the “spine” protein.
The overall efficacy in this study was 49.4%, but this number increased to 60%. In the group of 94% HIV-uninfected participants.
It is concerning from Novavax that about a third of the participants in the PAR study had previously been infected with the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and later, during the study, were mainly infected with the new strain of the virus.
Amesh Adalja, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (CHS) at the Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP news agency that it was important to take into account the loss of effectiveness. , but the vaccine is still good.
“60 percent. The effectiveness against this strain is still pretty good, he said.” The Novavax vaccine has definitely prevented serious disease, which is really the most important thing. “
Together with Johnson & Johnson?
These studies were the first to evaluate the effectiveness of any COVID-19 vaccine against UK and PAR strains under real-world conditions.
Pfizer and Moderna have previously stated that their vaccines are effective against these strains, but their findings have been based on laboratory testing.
Photo by Scanpix / Pfizer / BioNTech Coronavirus Vaccine
The United States said Thursday that it had cleared up the first two cases of B.1.351 infection in its territory, raising concerns that a slowdown in the country’s spread could accelerate again.
Following the Novavax announcement, pressure has mounted on another vaccine maker, Johnson & Johnson, which is due to release the results of its third-phase study next week.
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