The US Food and Drug Administration says found Novavax's SARS-CoV-2 vaccine to be highly effective, helping to paving its way toward authorization, NPR reports.
The company reported last year that is vaccine is 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19, though repeatedly pushed back its timeline for seeking emergency authorization from the FDA for its vaccine. But now advisors to the agency are expected to discuss the vaccine this week and in an assessment in advance of that meeting, FDA noted the vaccine is highly effective, NPR says.
If authorized, the vaccine could fill a particular gap in vaccine uptake, the Washington Post writes. Unlike the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the Novavax vaccine is not mRNA-based, but is protein based. This, it says, could enable people who cannot receive an mRNA-based vaccine or who are hesitant to get an mRNA-based vaccine to still get vaccinated.
However, the FDA review did note, the Post adds, that the Novavax vaccine was associated with a few cases of a rare heart inflammation, though the company says there is "insufficient evidence to establish a causal relationship."