Novavax says its COVID vaccine is more than 89% effective

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — Another coronavirus vaccine is in the picture.

Novavax Inc. said its vaccine was 89.3% effective at protecting people from the virus, according to its study in the U.K.

According to a release from its website, the vaccine, which was conducted in partnership with the U.K. Government’s Vaccines Taskforce, is also the first to demonstrate clinical efficacy against both the U.K. and South Africa coronavirus variants.

More than 20,000 participants were involved in Phase 1, 2 and 3 trials.

“NVX-CoV2373 has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis,” Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novavax, said. “We look forward to continuing to work with our partners, collaborators, investigators and regulators around the world to make the vaccine available as quickly as possible.”

In a separate study, the vaccine was less effective in South Africa where another variant has spread.

In South Africa, the Novavax vaccine was about 49.4% effective against COVID-19.

Preliminary results showed that more than 90% of the sick subjects were infected with the new variant circulating in South Africa.

Novavax said it started work on a new version of its vaccine that better targets the strain first identified in South Africa, and plans to begin testing in the second quarter.