Novavax Covid-19 vaccine highly effective in late-stage trial, long-awaited results show
N ovavax’s Covid-19 vaccine was highly effective in preventing symptomatic infections, hospitalizations, and severe illnesses, long-awaited results from the company’s Phase 3 trial, released Monday, revealed. The vaccine was 90% protective against laboratory-confirmed symptomatic infection.
The trial results put this vaccine in the same efficacy ballpark as the mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. But where those companies are currently producing and selling hundreds of millions of doses and are in the process of seeking full licensure from the Food and Drug Administration, Novavax still has steps it must take before it can apply for the regulatory authorizations it will need to start rolling out its vaccine.
The results were released in a statement; Novavax said it will submit the full trial data for publication in a peer-reviewed journal at a later date.
It also said it will file with several drug regulators, including the FDA, in the third quarter and expects to be able to produce 100 million doses a month by the end of that quarter, upping production to 150 million per month by the end of the year.
