COVID-19: Novavax says its vaccine is 89% effective

Novavax Inc said on Thursday its coronavirus vaccine was 89.3 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 in a trial conducted in the United Kingdom, and was nearly as effective in protecting against the more highly contagious variant first discovered in the UK, according to a preliminary analysis.

Novavax said the trial, which enrolled 15,000 people aged 18 to 84, is expected to be used to apply for regulatory review in Britain, the European Union and other countries. Some 27 per cent of people in the trial are over 65.

The study took place as the more easily transmissible UK variant was circulating, and the preliminary analysis suggests the vaccine was 85.6 per cent effective against this mutation, the US company announced in a news release. It did not provide the study data.