Early promise from Novavax's vaccine candidate for COVID-19

New Phase 1/2 on Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate NVX‑CoV2373 has shown that the therapy generated “robust antibody responses” when used with or without the company’s Matrix‑M adjuvant.

The study examined 131 healthy participants aged 18-59 years old. Antibody activity produced by the vaccine was observed as “numerically superior” to that seen in human convalescent sera, with all trial participants developing anti-spike IgG antibodies following initial dosing.

Furthermore, many participants also generated wild-type virus neutralising antibodies, with both these kinds of responses stacking up favourably against responses seen in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.

While only some participants generated wild-type virus neutralizing antibodies following a single dose, 100% generated such a response after receiving a second dose of the vaccine. IgC antibody activity was also shown to correlate strongly with neutralisation titers, illustrating that a “significant proportion” of the antibodies generated would be capable of mounting an effective immune response.  

“The Phase 1 data demonstrate that NVX-CoV2373 with our Matrix-M adjuvant is a well‑tolerated COVID-19 vaccine with a robust immunogenicity profile,” explained Dr Gregory Glenn, President of Research and Development at Novavax. “Using a stringent wild-type virus assay performed by investigators at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, NVX‑CoV2373 elicited neutralising antibody titres greater than those observed in a pool of COVID‑19 patients with clinically significant disease.”

Matt Fellows