Novavax Says Coronavirus Vaccine Generated 'Robust Antibody Responses' In Phase 1 Trial Participants

Novavax, Inc NVAX announced Tuesday its novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine elicited "robust antibody responses" in participants of the Phase 1 clinical trial.

What Happened

The Maryland-based drugmaker said in a statement that it carried out Phase 1 testing of its NVX-CoV2373 vaccine with and without its trademarked Matrix-M adjuvant in 131 healthy adults across ages 18-59 years.

“Overall, the vaccine was well-tolerated and reactogenicity events were generally mild,” it noted.

The vaccine candidate produced anti-spike IgG antibodies in all subjects after a single 5 µg dose, and many of the subjects also developed wild-type neutralizing antibody responses. The company reported 100% of the participants developed the wild-type responses after a second dose.

The use of adjuvant was “dose sparing,” according to the company, with a single 5 µg performing comparably to a 25 µg dose of the vaccine.

John Moore, a virologist not involved in the study, told the New York Times that Novavax’s results were the most promising he had seen, saying, “Yeah, I’d take that.”

Angela Rasmussen, another virologist concurred, calling the results “encouraging,” but cautioned it was too early to say if the vaccine was safe before Phase 3 trials are concluded.

Why It Matters

The U.S. government awarded Novavax $1.6 billion in funding to support the vaccine and the company has the capability to produce 100 million doses by the end of 2020, according to its CEO Stanley Erck.

The company is on a timeline to begin shipping doses in the fourth quarter and aims to ship 100 million units by first quarter next year.

Vaccine candidates of Johnson & Johnson JNJ, Moderna Inc MRNA, Pfizer Inc PFE, and its partner BioNTech SE BNTX are also in or near late-stage clinical trials.

Price Action

Novavax shares closed nearly 0.8% higher at $157.17 on Monday and added nearly 9% in the after-hours session to $171.