With countries racing to come up with a COVID-19 vaccine, US drug developer Novavax Inc confirmed that it is starting a mid-stage study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in South Africa.
This confirmation of the vaccine comes at a time when the country is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases.
The company in a statement said that the Phase 2b trial study of NVX-CoV2373 will be conducted on about 2,665 healthy adults and will evaluate the safety and immunogenicity in about 240 medically stable and HIV-positive adults.
Meanwhile, Novavax research chief Gregory Glenn claimed that, "Because South Africa is experiencing a winter surge of COVID-19 disease, this important Phase 2b clinical trial has the potential to provide an early indication of efficacy, along with additional safety and immunogenicity data for NVX-CoV2373."
With the current rise of COVID-19 cases, South Africa is fifth-worst affected country. Till date it had 5,83,653 coronavirus cases and 11,677 deaths.
Further in its statement, the company stated that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is providing a $15 million grant towards the clinical trial. Further giving clarity on its Phase 2 trial, Novavax said it intends to initiate the Phase 2 portion of this trial in the United States and Australia and that it would include about 1,500 candidates.
However in July, the US government had awarded Novavax $1.6 billion to cover testing and manufacturing of a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus in the United States which aimed to deliver a 100 million doses by January.
Check the press release here: https://reut.rs/3g0sRzb
OTHER NEWS SHOTS
