Novavax says COVID vaccine is more than 89% effective

Novavax reported Thursday that its COVID-19 vaccine had an estimated efficacy of 89.3% in a Phase III clinical trial conducted in the United Kingdom. The data found there were 62 confirmed COVID-19 infections among the 15,000 participants in the trial: 56 in the placebo group and 6 in the vaccine recipients. With the results, Novavax “has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis,” company CEO Stanley Erck said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with our partners, collaborators, investigators and regulators around the world to make the vaccine available as quickly as possible.” The vaccine appeared to be 85.6% effective against the B.1.1.7 U.K. variant of the coronavirus. However, a separate Phase II study in South Africa indicated the vaccine was less effective against a new strain spreading in that country. The vaccine was still considered effective in protecting against the virus, but it was about 49.4% effective in that study. The company said 90% of the cases in South Africa were infected with the new variant. Novavax said it plans to select a modified version of the vaccine to better protect against the new strain “in the coming days” and plans to test the modified vaccine in the second quarter.