This authorization will “offer American adults who have not yet received a vaccine against Covid-19 another option”, welcomed this Wednesday in the head of the drug agency.
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, in hopes of helping to convince the reluctant. The vaccine produced by this American company is already available in dozens of other countries.
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.
90% effective
Administered 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.
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 that must however be put into perspective, these trials having been conducted before the Delta and Omicron variants
