Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine Study Shows Promising Results

Amid the race to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, Novavax, a biotech company’s COVID-19 vaccine study generated a promising immune response in an early-stage clinical trial in results unveiled recently, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The company has never brought a vaccine to market in its 33-year history but its reputation got a boost in July when the biotechnology company received a $1.6 billion grant from the US government’s Operation Warp Speed to have 100 million doses ready by early 2021.

Novavax Inc.’s experimental vaccine for Covid-19 showed signs of promise in an early-stage study, becoming the latest shol;78=-09651qaapity t to clear initial hurdles in the race to protect against the coronavirus. The two-injection regimen when administered concurrently with Novavax’s immune-boosting technology dubbed Matrix-M generated antibody responses that were four times higher than those seen in people who had recovered from the disease. The vaccine also brought about responses from T-cells, which help the immune system fight off infection.

The phase one trial included 131 healthy participants between the ages of 18 and 59 at two sites in Australia.

Novavax, of Maryland, said the vaccine was “well-tolerated and had a reassuring safety profile” and provoked an immune response with higher levels of antibodies in people who received the vaccine than in people who had recovered from coronavirus. Scientists mixed stable, a prefusion protein with a compound called an adjuvant to improve the performance of the vaccine.

Novavax said the vaccine was well tolerated with no serious adverse events reported. Some participants reported mild side effects such as fatigue, muscle aches, and headaches lasting a maximum of two days.

“The Phase 1 data demonstrate that NVX-CoV2373 with our Matrix-M adjuvant is a well-tolerated COVID-19 vaccine with a robust immunogenicity profile,” Gregory Glenn, president for research and development at Novavax, said in a statement.

Novovax (NVAX) is slated to start a 30,000-person final-stage study in the fall which will test whether the immune responses triggered by the vaccine safely protect people from the coronavirus.

Novavax is partnered with another Maryland-based company, Emergent Biosolutions Inc. to manufacture its vaccine.