Results from a vaccine trial of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine trial have shown that it has full protection against severe disease from the original and new variant of the coronavirus first discovered in both South Africa and the UK.
An updated analysis of the Novavax vaccine trial in South Africa shows vaccine efficacy of just over 55% against mainly mild COVID-19 among HIV-negative trial participants.
Executive Director of the Wits Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics (VIDA) Research Unit, Professor Shabir Madhi, leads the trial in South Africa.
He says all hospitalisations and deaths occurred in the placebo group of the study.
“The results from the South African trial reinforce that, even with the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus developing mutations in an attempt to evade immune responses induced following natural infection by ancestry virus, the first generation of COVID-19 vaccines still offer great potential especially in mitigating severe disease and death from COVID-19.
This was evident in South Africa where all the cases of COVID-19 hospitalisation and death occurred in the unvaccinated control group. This despite the effectiveness of the first generation COVID-19 vaccines being variably affected in reducing the risk of mild COVID-19 caused by the B.1.351 variant, due to the variant being relatively resistant to the antibody induced by all COVID-19 vaccines,” Professor Madhi says.
“We are very encouraged by the data showing that 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,” adds the President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax, Stanley Erck.
South Africa is currently administering the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in the first phase of its vaccination programme.
It has so far vaccinated over 130 000 healthcare workers.
The country is expecting other vaccines from Pfizer and Covax vaccine-sharing scheme. It is in the process of finalising the country’s dose allocation from the African Union.
Moderna has meanwhile launched a clinical trial of a new COVID-19 vaccine designed to combat the variant that was first discovered in South Africa.
SABC News correspondent Nick Harper elaborates on this initiative:
