Novavax Vaccine Found To Be Up To 90.4% Effective. CEO Says Company Plans To File For Authorization

Novavax, a small biotechnology company based in Maryland, announced on Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine was found to be safe and up to 90.4% effective in its Phase 3 clinical trial involving nearly 30,000 participants across the US and Mexico.

Its most differentiating factor was the presence of all coronavirus variants of concern to date. About 82% of participants had one of the four variants — Alpha from the U.K. (B.1.1.7), Beta from South Africa (B.1.351), Gamma from Brazil (P.1), and Delta from India (B.1.671.2) — as well as other variants of interest such as the one which originated in California.

The vaccine, which works in two doses, was found to be up to 100% effective in preventing diseases and up to 93% effective against some variants.

The company also announced that it was working on plans to file for authorization with the Food and Drug Administration in the third quarter of 2021. If approved, this will make Novavax the fourth authorized vaccine in the US following the approvals of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. 

This trial “confirms that NVX-CoV2373 offers an encouraging tolerability and safety profile,” Dr. Gregory Glenn, Novavax’s president of research and development, said in a press release. “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.”

Novavax CEO Stanley Erck also shares that the company expects to see a large market in the United States for booster shots. According to him, researchers are beginning to see levels of antibodies wane after 6 to 12 months.

“It’s clear that we’re all going to need one boost and then maybe on an annual basis or some period,” he said, in an interview on Monday.

This news comes as Federal officials reveal that the United States has enough doses of vaccines to vaccinate its entire population. Currently, over 173 million Americans have had at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, with about 144 million (43.8%) of the population fully vaccinated. 

The Biden administration has already committed to donating at least 20 million doses of Covid vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and J&J as well as 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which has not yet been authorized for use in the U.S.

The vaccine produced by Novavax could go into donations to other countries, like India, where the virus has been circulating rapidly. The Biden government has pledged to donate at least 20 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and J&J Covid-19 vaccines, and 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

According to the clinical test, the Novavax vaccine is also well-tolerated by the body - with recipients commonly reporting headache, fatigue, and muscle pain - all of which last no more than two or three days.

As of Monday, the company's stock (NVAX) is trading on NASDAQ at $207.71 per share.