ReutersThe CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine maker, Adar Poonawalla, has announced the trials for Covovax, a vaccine jointly to be developed by both SII and US-based biotechnology company Novavax, have finally started in India. Adar said the vaccine has been tested against African and UK variants of COVID-19 and has overall efficacy of 89 per cent. Adar also said that he hopes the vaccine could be launched by September 2021.
"Covovax trials finally begin in India; the vaccine is made through a partnership with @Novavax and @SerumInstIndia. It has been tested against African and UK variants of #COVID19 and has overall efficacy of 89%. Hope to launch by September 2021!," he tweeted.
SII has signed an agreement with Novavax to manufacture a vaccine with the name 'Covovax' in India. Novavax Inc on March 11 had announced the final efficacy of 96.4 per cent against mild, moderate and severe disease caused by original COVID-19 virus in its Phase 3 trials of its vaccine candidate NVX-CoV2373 in the UK.
NVX-CoV2373 is being evaluated in two pivotal Phase 3 trials, a trial in the UK that demonstrated efficacy of 96.4 per cent against the original virus strain and 89.7 per cent overall, and the PREVENT-19 trial in the US and Mexico that began in December 2020," the company said.
In its analysis of Phase 2b trials in South Africa, the company said the vaccine has shown 55.4 per cent efficacy among the HIV-negative trial participants in a region where the vast majority of strains are B1.351 escape variants. Across both trials, the vaccine showed 100 per cent protection against severe disease, including all hospitalisation and death.
"NVX-CoV2373 not only provided complete protection against the most severe forms of disease but also dramatically reduced mild and moderate disease across both trials. Importantly, both studies confirmed efficacy against the variant strains," said Stanley C Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax.
The study enrolled over 15,000 participants between 18-84 years of age, including 27 per cent over the age of 65. The vaccine showed the efficacy of 96.4 per cent against the original virus strain and 86.3 per cent against the B.1.1.7/501Y.V1 variant circulating in the UK.
Novavax's vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, is a protein-based vaccine candidate engineered from the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. In January, Novavax had reported 89 per cent efficacy against Cvovid-19 during its trials in the UK.
India has so far approved two vaccines against COVID-19 -- Covishield, manufactured by the SII, and the indigenously-developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech -- for restricted emergency use in the country.
Besides, Serum is aiming at supplying 237 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine to 142 countries by May-end under the COVAX initiative, co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). COVAX is a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Novavax with Serum will provide 1.1 billion cumulative doses of NVX-CoV2373 for the COVAX Facility.
"Covovax trials finally begin in India; the vaccine is made through a partnership with @Novavax and @SerumInstIndia. It has been tested against African and UK variants of #COVID19 and has overall efficacy of 89%. Hope to launch by September 2021!," he tweeted.
SII has signed an agreement with Novavax to manufacture a vaccine with the name 'Covovax' in India. Novavax Inc on March 11 had announced the final efficacy of 96.4 per cent against mild, moderate and severe disease caused by original COVID-19 virus in its Phase 3 trials of its vaccine candidate NVX-CoV2373 in the UK.
NVX-CoV2373 is being evaluated in two pivotal Phase 3 trials, a trial in the UK that demonstrated efficacy of 96.4 per cent against the original virus strain and 89.7 per cent overall, and the PREVENT-19 trial in the US and Mexico that began in December 2020," the company said.
In its analysis of Phase 2b trials in South Africa, the company said the vaccine has shown 55.4 per cent efficacy among the HIV-negative trial participants in a region where the vast majority of strains are B1.351 escape variants. Across both trials, the vaccine showed 100 per cent protection against severe disease, including all hospitalisation and death.
"NVX-CoV2373 not only provided complete protection against the most severe forms of disease but also dramatically reduced mild and moderate disease across both trials. Importantly, both studies confirmed efficacy against the variant strains," said Stanley C Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax.
The study enrolled over 15,000 participants between 18-84 years of age, including 27 per cent over the age of 65. The vaccine showed the efficacy of 96.4 per cent against the original virus strain and 86.3 per cent against the B.1.1.7/501Y.V1 variant circulating in the UK.
Novavax's vaccine, NVX-CoV2373, is a protein-based vaccine candidate engineered from the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. In January, Novavax had reported 89 per cent efficacy against Cvovid-19 during its trials in the UK.
India has so far approved two vaccines against COVID-19 -- Covishield, manufactured by the SII, and the indigenously-developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech -- for restricted emergency use in the country.
Besides, Serum is aiming at supplying 237 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine to 142 countries by May-end under the COVAX initiative, co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). COVAX is a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Novavax with Serum will provide 1.1 billion cumulative doses of NVX-CoV2373 for the COVAX Facility.
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4 Comments on this Story
 | Rakesh Srivastava8 hours ago Government has been doing a lot for promotion of COVAXINE ( opposition parties have been doing unwarranted propaganda against Covaxine since January ) Many politicians in India, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been inoculated with Covaxin , just to explicitly show the preference for COVAXINE. The top doctors of India , Dr Guleria ,Director AIIMS and Dr V K Paul , the Chairman of the National Expert Group on COVID-19 vaccine implementation on the very first day took the COVAXINE |
 | Dp Beer8 hours ago Sad to see how the influential vaccine makers and the government support this . It is now a matter of record that the studies have shown that the Indian developed and made covaxin from Hyderabad has high efficacy , hardly any side effects and works well for the mutant strain also !! Inspite of the same the govt is promoting the UK Oxford-AstraZeneca-poonawala covidsheild ! This vaccine has been found to be ineffective against the mutant strain , South Africa returned the vaccine as they found it dud ! Why is the govt not promoting its own developed and manufactured vaccine ? |
 | Baruun 9 hours ago world and india needs this huge booster to come out completely |
