Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Novavax's Covid Vaccine 89% Effective, Less So Against Mutations
CNN: Novavax Vaccine Is 89% Effective In UK Trial, But Less So In South Africa
A new Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax was found to be 89% effective in a clinical trial conducted in the UK and appears to offer protection against some variants of the coronavirus, the American biotech firm has announced. Novavax said Thursday that its vaccine was found to have been 95.6% effective against the original novel coronavirus, and 85.6% effective against the variant first identified in the UK, known as B.1.1.7, based on results from a Phase 3 trial conducted in the UK. The study included efficacy estimates by strain based on PCR tests performed on variants from 56 Covid-19 cases in the trial. (Howard, Soares and Said-Moorhouse, 1/29)
Politico: Novavax Says Its Covid-19 Vaccine Is 89 Percent Effective, But Less So Against South African Variant
Novavax, which is based in Maryland, has never brought a vaccine to market. The Trump administration awarded the company $1.6 billion to develop and test the vaccine, begin large-scale manufacturing and reserve 100 million doses. Trial details: Novavax tested its vaccine in the U.K. during a period when a different variant of the virus — first detected in Britain and more transmissible than earlier versions — began circulating. The company's analysis of the 15,000-person Phase III trial found that the vaccine was 95.6 percent effective against the original Covid-19 strain and 85.6 percent effective against the U.K. variant, B.1.1.7. (Lim, 1/28)
The New York Times: Novavax’s Vaccine Works Well — Except On Variant First Found In South Africa
Novavax, which makes one of six vaccine candidates supported by Operation Warp Speed last summer, has been running trials in Britain, South Africa, the United States and Mexico. It said Thursday that an early analysis of its 15,000-person trial in Britain revealed that the two-dose vaccine had an efficacy rate of nearly 90 percent there. But in a small trial in South Africa, the efficacy rate dropped to just under 50 percent. Almost all the cases that scientists have analyzed there so far were caused by the variant, known as B.1.351. The data also showed that many trial participants were infected with the variant even after they had already had Covid. (Thomas, Zimmer and LaFraniere, 1/28)
