Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine prevents 90% of infections

Novavax Inc says its experimental COVID-19 vaccine is safe and nearly 90% effective at preventing infection, an interim analysis shows.

On Thursday, the Maryland-based company released results from two clinical trials, one held in the UK and the other in South Africa.

Both countries have seen highly infectious variants crop up in recent months that have spread around the world. 

A third clinical trial being conducted in the U.S. is still in the process of recruiting participants and is not expected to reveal data for several months.

In the UK late-stage trial, just 62 of more than 15,000 participants fell ill, showing 89.3 percent efficacy.

In a late-stage UK study, the Novovax vaccine was shown to be 89.3% effective at preventing COVID-19 infection, but it was just 49.3% effective against the South Africa variant. Pictured: Three potential coronavirus vaccines are kept in a tray at Novavax labs in Gaithersburg, Maryland, March 20

Roughly half were infected with the UK variant known as B.1.1.7, and the vaccine appeared to be almost as effective in that group.

Results showed 95.6 percent efficacy the originally circulating variant and 85.6 percent against B 1.1.7. 

But in South Africa, the Novavax shot was not as protective and was found to be just 49.4% effective against COVID-19.

Novavax, which has not produced a vaccine before, created a shot that contains synthesized pieces of the surface protein that the coronavirus uses to invade human cells.

The idea is that the protein will cause human cells to spur production of antibodies to fight the infection.  

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.