The serum produced by an American company is already available in dozens of countries.
The United States Medicines Agency on Wednesday authorized Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine for adults 18 and older, providing an additional option for getting vaccinated in the United States, hoping to help convince the reluctant. The vaccine produced by this American company is already available in dozens of other countries.
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In the United States, on the other hand, only three anti-Covid vaccines were currently authorized: those with messenger RNA from Pfizer and Moderna, and that from Johnson & Johnson. But access to the latter has been limited due to an increased risk of serious thrombosis. The emergency authorization of the Novavax vaccine will “offering American adults who have not yet received a Covid-19 vaccine another option”welcomed in a press release Robert Califf, the boss of the drug agency (FDA).
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Given in two doses three weeks apart, it uses a more traditional technique than messenger RNA, which has been the target of many conspiracy theories, although it has been shown to be very safe. The Novavax vaccine contains a component of the virus that triggers an immune response, similar to the pertussis, meningococcal meningitis and hepatitis B vaccines.
90% effective
In clinical trials, conducted on several thousand people in the United States and Mexico, it was found to be 90% effective against symptomatic cases of Covid-19. A figure which must however be put into perspective, these tests having been conducted before the Delta and Omicron variants.
“Americans can be confident that this vaccine, like all other vaccines used in the United States, has undergone rigorous and comprehensive scientific review by the FDA”, underlined Peter Marks, responsible within the agency. The vaccination rate for the adult population is stagnating around 77% in the United States. The US government announced this week that it had purchased 3.2 million doses of the vaccine from Novavax, anticipating the FDA’s decision.
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