Novavax Inc's COVID-19 vaccine was 96% effective in preventing cases caused by the original version of the coronavirus in a late-stage trial conducted in the United Kingdom, the company said on Thursday, moving it a step closer to regulatory approval.
There were no cases of severe illness or deaths among those who got the vaccine, the company said, in a sign that it could stop the worse effects of new variants that have cropped up, Reuters reported.
The vaccine was 86% effective in protecting against the more contagious virus variant first discovered and now prevalent in the United Kingdom, for a combined 90% effectiveness rate overall based on data from infections of both versions of the coronavirus.
Read alsoUkraine expects batch of Pfizer vaccine to arrive in coming weeksThe UK trial, which enrolled more than 15,000 people aged 18 to 84, assessed efficacy of the vaccine during a period with high transmission of the UK virus variant now circulating widely.
Novavax plans to produce its two-shot vaccine at eight manufacturing locations, including the Serum Institute of India.
Vaccination in Ukraine
- On February 24, 2021, Ukraine launched a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign. An emergency room doctor from Cherkasy region was the first one to get vaccinated.
- Ukraine uses the Covishield vaccine, which was developed by the University of Oxford in partnership with the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca. It is produced in India under a licensing agreement.
- Ukraine has received 500,000 doses of the vaccine so far.
- The vaccination campaign in Ukraine was originally expected to start with the use of a vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, which Ukraine was supposed to receive during the first wave of distribution under the global COVAX Facility. The supply of 117,000 doses of that vaccine to Ukraine has been booked.
- Ukraine also expects the supply of 15 million doses of the Novavax vaccine from July 2021.
