An early-stage trial of Novavax's candidate SARS-CoV-2 vaccine has exhibited promising results, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The candidate vaccine, dubbed NVX-CoV2373, contains a synthetic version of the protein SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter human cells, it adds. In the trial, which was conducted in Australia, 130 healthy volunteers were given either the vaccine or placebo. The company reports that all individuals who received NVX-CoV2373 developed anti-spike IgG antibodies following a single dose and a neutralizing antibody response following two doses. The Morning Herald notes that those given two doses of the vaccine had, on average, four times the level of neutralizing antibodies than a group of recovered COVID-19 patients.
"At this point, it looks extremely promising ... We have a technology that is extremely good at inducing functional immunity. [We found] very robust and very strong immune responses that we know will neutralise the virus," Gregory Glenn, the president of research and development at Novavax, tells the Morning Herald. The company adds that the vaccine was also generally well tolerated.
The paper notes, however, that the data are preliminary and have yet to undergo peer review.
Novavax has received $1.6 billion in funding from Operation Warp Speed in the US to develop and manufacture the vaccine, Bloomberg adds.