GOOD NEWS: 2 POTENTIAL CORONAVIRUS VACCINE SHOW PROMISING RESULTS - DETAILS

As per a recent study, a potential coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by Novavax has appeared to be safe in early clinical trials. The study on it was published recently. 

As per Times Now report, the company had announced its experimental vaccine, NVX‑CoV2373, adjuvanted with Matrix-M (which is an agent to boost the body’s immune response). During its trial, the vaccine was generally well-tolerated and elicited robust antibody responses numerically superior to that seen in people who had recovered from COVID‑19.

Looking into the other vaccine, Johnson & Johnson too announced that its coronavirus vaccine candidate, Ad26 vaccine has shown encouraging and promising results in animal trials as it prevented severe illness in hamsters, Times Now further reported. 

Sharing details of each vaccine:

1. Novavax COVID-19 vaccine: As per the researchers, to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the NVX-CoV2373 vaccine, they initiated a randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 1/2 trial involving 131 healthy adults 18-59 years of age. 

During its initial trial, 83 volunteers received the vaccine with adjuvant, and 25 got the jab without the booster, and 23 got the placebo. Meanwhile, the participants were given a second dose 21 days after the first vaccination.

After participants who received the two doses of the vaccine developed antibodies more than 4-6 times greater than the antibodies generated by patients who had recovered from COVID-19. 

“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,” Gregory M Glenn, MD, President, Research and Development at Novavax, said in a press release. 

“Using a stringent wild-type virus assay performed by investigators at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, NVX‑CoV2373 elicited neutralizing antibody titers greater than those observed in a pool of COVID‑19 patients with clinically significant disease," the release added. 

2. Coming to the second vaccine Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine: The company said the vaccine had potential coronavirus vaccine prevented severe illness in a small group of Syrian golden hamsters. The vaccine elicited neutralizing antibodies in hamsters who received the jab.

The company further stated that hamsters who were vaccinated also didn’t have severe clinical disease and appeared to lose less weight than unvaccinated hamsters.