As per the studies, Novavax’s jab has the highest efficacy. Novavax’s COVID-19 jab is more than 90 percent effective, including against coronavirus variants, the vaccine maker said Monday after a large-scale US study. The jab “demonstrated 100% protection against moderate and severe disease, 90.4% efficacy overall,” the company said in a statement, adding “the study enrolled 29,960 participants across 119 sites in the U.S. and Mexico to evaluate efficacy, safety and immunogenicity.’
“Today, Novavax is one step closer to addressing the critical and persistent global public health need for additional Covid-19 vaccines,” said Novavax president Stanley C. Erck. He added, “Novavax continues to work with a sense of urgency to complete our regulatory submissions and deliver this vaccine, built on a well understood and proven platform, to a world that is still in great need of vaccines.” The company intends to file for regulatory authorisations in the third quarter of 2021. Following the regulatory guidelines Novavax will reach a manufacturing capacity of 100 million doses per month by the end of the third quarter and 150 million doses per month by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, this US-based biotechnology company Novavax has tied up with the Serum Institute of India (SII) to manufacture its Covid-19 vaccine, namely Covovax. Pune-based Serum Institute of India is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally. Novavax said that SII is a crucial partner to achieve the production targets. Although the company has not disclosed the volumes it is making now, it has set a target to make around 50 million doses of Covovax per month. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla, earlier in March had said that clinical trials of the vaccine ‘Covovax’ have begun in India and the company hopes to launch it by September this year. The SII is already producing the Covishield vaccine, the local version of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s drug.
The Government of India has already factored in 20 crore Covovax doses in the larger pool of 2 billion it expects to make available for the national inoculation drive between August and December.
The Covovax stock would be a key to the overall Indian vaccine plan as the government gears to inoculate the entire 95 crore adult population requiring 1.9 billion doses.
The promising results of Novavax might play a significant role in wiping out the existence if the virus from the entire world and in bringing back our new life. While comparing clinical-trial data is fraught, especially during an evolving pandemic, the Novavax results appear to be among the best so far. Novavax fell short of the 94% and 95% efficacy reported respectively by mRNA vaccines from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.’s collaboration with BioNTech SE, but context matters.
Novavax has also been especially about to license its vaccine to manufacturers in other parts of the world, including South Korea’s SK Biosciences Co., Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and the Serum Institute of India (already in progress). Once those plants are up to speed, they should help more quickly vaccinate their home countries and further increase global availability. The company is testing a third dose as a six-month booster, and early data suggests it produces a strong immune response. Novavax is also part of a study in the U.K. examining mixing different vaccines, and good results could bode well for broad booster use. The company is also developing vaccines tailored to specific strains, and a combination flu and Covid shot, which could see use for years to come.
Also, unlike other vaccines, Novavax formally known as NVX-CoV2373 isn’t required to be stored at ultra-low temperatures.The company said it was “stored and stable at 2°- 8°C, allowing the use of existing vaccine supply chain channels for its distribution.”
