Related MediaJan 29, 2021 11:14:20 IST
Novavax Inc. said. On Thursday the COVID-19 vaccine appears to be 89% effective based on early results from a British study and appears to be working – albeit not so well – against new mutated versions of the virus in that country and South Africa.
The news comes amid concerns about whether a mix of vaccines will be distributed around the world strong enough to protect against worrying new changes – and because the world desperately needs new types of vaccines. photographs to encourage scarce supply.
There are still a survey of 15,000 people in Britain. But an interim study found that 62 participants have so far been diagnosed with COVID-19 – just six of them in the group who received vaccination and the rest who received false pictures.
The infections occurred at a time when Britain was experiencing a jump in COVID-19 caused by a more contagious variant. A preliminary analysis found that more than half of the participants in the captured trial had the mutated version. The numbers are very small, but Novavax said they suggest the vaccine is nearly 96% effective against the oldest coronavirus and nearly 86% effective against the new variant. The conclusions are based on cases that occurred at least a week after the second dose.
“Both of these numbers are remarkable demonstrations of our vaccine’s ability to develop a strong immune response,” Novavax CEO Stanley Erck said in a statement with investors late Thursday.
Scientists have been even more concerned about a variant first discovered in South Africa that carries various mutations. Results from a smaller Novavax study in that country show that the vaccine works but is not as good as it is against the British variant.
Dr. Sonia Macieiewski (R) and Dr. Nita Patel, Director of antibody detection and vaccine development, will look at a sample of a respiratory virus at Novavax Labs in Maryland on March 20, one of the laboratories is developing a vaccine for COVID-19. AFP
The South African study included some volunteers with HIV. Among HIV-negative volunteers, the vaccine appears to be 60% effective. Including volunteers with HIV, overall the protection was 49%, the company said. While genetic testing is still ongoing, to date approximately 90% of the COVID-19 diseases detected in the South African study are due to the new mutant.
“These are good results. There is reason to be optimistic ”about 60% efficiency, said Glenda Gray, head of the South African Medical Examination Council. Even against the new variant that now causes more than 90% of new cases in that country, “we still see the effectiveness of vaccination,” she said.
More worrying than the study showed a completely different question – the chances of people getting COVID-19 a second time, said South African study director Shabir Madhi of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Tests suggested that nearly a third of the study participants had previously been infected, but levels of new infections in the placebo group were similar.
“The previous infection with early changes of the virus in South Africa will not protect against infection with the new one,” he said. “There seems to be no protection.”
Novavax said it needs a little more data before it can seek a British license to use the vaccine, sometime in the next month or so. A larger study in the U.S. and Mexico has recorded just over half of the 30,000 missing volunteers. Novavax said it is unclear whether the Food and Drug Administration will also need data from that study, before deciding whether to allow U.S. use.
At the same time, it is beginning to develop a version of the vaccine that could specifically target the mutations found in South Africa, in case health authorities decide eventually updated doses are needed.
Vaccines against COVID-19 train the body to recognize the new coronavirus, the bulk of the spike protein that coats it. But the Novavax candidate is made in a different way than the first pictures used. Called a recirculating protein vaccine, the Maryland company uses genetic engineering to grow harmless copies of spike coronavirus protein in insect cells. Scientists extract and purify the protein and then mix it in a chemical that increases immunity.