Medicago, GSK's Plant-Based COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Hits 75% Efficacy Against Delta Strain

Canada-based Medicago and GlaxoSmithKline plc GSK have released Phase 3 data from their plant-derived adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The trial was conducted on over 24,000 subjects (adults 18 years and above) across six countries.

• The companies found that the overall vaccine efficacy rate against all variants of SARS-CoV-2 was 71%, with the number for people with an initial seronegative status (showing no previous exposure to COVID-19) 75.6%. 
• The vaccine works as two doses of 3.75 µg of antigen combined with GSK's pandemic adjuvant given 21 days apart.
• The vaccine candidate demonstrated the efficacy of 75.3% against COVID-19 of any severity for the globally dominant Delta variant. 
• Efficacy was 88.6% against the gamma variant, though it's in small numbers of people.
• No cases of the alpha, lambda, and mu variants were observed in the vaccinated group, while 12 cases were observed in the placebo group.
• Complete results of GSK/Medicago's phase 3 study "will be released in a peer-reviewed publication as soon as possible." 
• Medicago will imminently seek regulatory approval from Health Canada as part of its rolling submission. 
• Related Link: GlaxoSmithKline-Medicago's COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Elicit Strong Immune Response.
• Price Action: GSK shares are up 0.74% at $42.07 during the premarket session on the last check Tuesday.