Statement from Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, following Novavax's announcement (28 January 2021) reporting efficacy data for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, from Phase III trials conducted in the UK and South Africa.
"It is extremely encouraging that the Novavax, NVX-CoV2373, protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate has demonstrated 89.3% efficacy in a Phase 3 UK trial and shows good efficacy against the newly identified variant B.1.1.7. The data from South Africa showing lower efficacy of this highly effective vaccine against B.1.351 is the first direct data to confirm the ability of this variant to partially evade our vaccines. It is good to hear that Novavax has moved so quickly to initiate development of new constructs against the emerging strains to identify candidates for booster or bivalent vaccines.
"I want to congratulate our Novavax partners on the outstanding results in the UK trial. NVX-CoV2373 will play a significant role in the global struggle against COVID-19.
"The data from South Africa highlight the need to continue to invest in R&D to remain one step ahead of this virus. CEPI is looking at this as a matter of urgency and will make further announcements in due course."
CEPI was one of the first investors of Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, and has to date provided up to US $388 million in funding to accelerate its development and manufacture.
In March 2020, CEPI provided up to US $4 million for Novavax to use their recombinant protein nanoparticle technology to develop a vaccine candidate against COVID-19. In early April 2020, Novavax announced that they had identified a coronavirus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373—a stable, prefusion protein made using Novavax' proprietary nanoparticle technology.
Our second investment, in May 2020, provided up to US $384 million to support preclinical studies, Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials. The additional funding also supported the transfer of NVX-CoV2373 technology to manufacturing partners in different geographical regions around the world, for large-scale production of vaccine.
Novavax's press release is available to read here.
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