Novavax Covid vaccine shows 89% efficacy in UK trials.

[CoffeeandCroissant]

Novavax Covid vaccine shows 89% efficacy in UK trials. Half the cases on the trial were the new ‘Kent’variant so this is first vaccine to show it is effective against the new more contagious variant.
mobile.twitter.com/BBCFergusWalsh/status/1354899361365422085

Teesside to make 60 million doses of Novavax Covid vaccine as it passes UK trial
www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/19047646.teesside-make-60-million-doses-novavax-covid-vaccine-passes-uk-trial/

Fab news!!

In its 15,000-volunteer U.K. trial, Novavax said, the vaccine prevented nine in 10 cases, including against a new strain of the virus that is circulating there. But in a 4,400-volunteer study in South Africa, the vaccine proved only 49% effective. In the 94% of the study population that did not have HIV, the efficacy was 60%.

In the U.K. trial, Novavax observed 62 cases of symptomatic Covid-19, with 56 in the placebo group and six among volunteers who got the vaccine. One patient on placebo developed severe Covid-19, compared with zero in the vaccine group.
www.statnews.com/2021/01/28/novavax-says-its-covid-19-vaccine-is-90-effective-but-far-less-so-against-one-variant/?

Do we know if any who received the vaccine were hospitalised?

No, only one severe case and that was in the placebo group:
The first interim analysis is based on 62 cases, of which 56 cases of COVID-19 were observed in the placebo group versus 6 cases observed in the NVX-CoV2373 group, resulting in a point estimate of vaccine efficacy of 89.3% (95% CI: 75.2 – 95.4). Of the 62 cases, 61 were mild or moderate, and 1 was severe (in placebo group).
ir.novavax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-demonstrates-893-efficacy-uk-phase-3

Great news!

Great news.

60% in (HIV free) South African cases isn’t so good. Is this high enough for herd immunity? And does anyone know what proportion of the South African cases are their new variant? Worrying for them, and potentially the rest of the world.

Still, good news overall.

I was one of the 15,000 and I'm just so happy to hear this (and surprised because loads of us have blood tests scheduled for the next couple of weeks).

@notevenat20
We've been kept informed and were certainly told that there have been no serious reported side effects anywhere (that includes other countries) - that was a while ago.

Preliminary sequencing data is available for 27 of 44 COVID-19 events; of these, 92.6% (25 out of 27 cases) were the South Africa escape variant.
ir.novavax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-demonstrates-893-efficacy-uk-phase-3

But no severe cases in those who were vaccinated in South Africa.

Small numbers for the South African results, so very wide confidence intervals.

Also suggests previous infection may not protect against the new "SA" variant, but the vaccine may reduce severity of reinfection to an extent.

Bottom line: it does protect against the SA variant, but not as well as against the original & "UK" variants. Novavax is working on vaccine targeting the new strain.
mobile.twitter.com/hildabast/status/1354909514877689859

@Frazzled2207

I was one of the 15,000 and I'm just so happy to hear this (and surprised because loads of us have blood tests scheduled for the next couple of weeks)

My DD was one of the 15,000 too! She went for her blood test early yesterday morning, asked them about publishing and they said it was imminent, and then the good news came out! She was so pleased, as we all are.