US biotech company Novavax on Tuesday announced its experimental Covid-19 vaccine elicited a robust immune response, producing more antibodies than are present in recovered patients, and with generally tolerable side-effects in its early-stage trial, reports AFP.
The company was given $1.6 billion by the US government last month to develop and fund the drug under Operation Warp Speed — but in terms of timeline it is behind other firms including Moderna and AstraZeneca which have entered the final stages of their trials.
It reported in a press release that the phase one stage of its placebo-controlled trial involved 131 healthy adults aged 18-59 and two dose groups of five and 25 micrograms.
Side effects included soreness at the site of injection, headache, fatigue and muscle pain. These were classified as mild to moderate, and none were severe.
After the first dose, all subjects who got the vaccine developed antibodies that block SARS-CoV-2’s “spike protein,” which it uses to latch on to human cells.
Most also developed “neutralizing antibodies” which are more potent and prevent viruses from infecting cells.
