LONDON – A follow-up study of participants in the phase II/III U.K. trial of Astrazeneca plc’s COVID-19 vaccine has shown it remains effective against the new B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Sweeping in behind Novavax Inc.’s positive phase III COVID-19 vaccine data is Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, which met all the primary endpoints and key secondary endpoints in its phase III study, according to an interim analysis that found it to be 85% effective overall in preventing severe disease.
LONDON – A fourth COVID-19 vaccine is on the road to approval in Europe, with Novavax Inc. announcing positive interim data from the phase III U.K. trial of NVX-CoV2373. The vaccine was 89.3% effective at a time when there was a high rate of infection in the country, and in the face of the newly identified variant, B 1.1.7, which is more transmissible. There also was positive data, though slightly less sparkly, from a phase IIb study in South Africa, where NVX-CoV2373 showed 60% efficacy in preventing mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 disease.
Hopes continue to rise as the COVID-19 vaccine beat goes on and Operation Warp Speed (OWS) lives up to its name, with Moderna Inc. netting another U.S. Department of Defense contract worth about $1.97 billion for another 100 million doses – an order that brings to about $6 billion the company’s government contracts for the product, which was granted emergency use authorization (EUA) earlier this month.
LONDON – A second phase III trial of Johnson & Johnson’s adenoviral-vectored COVID-19 vaccine is starting in the U.K. this week, amid concerns the positive news from the Pfizer Inc./Biontech SE vaccine study will deter volunteers from coming forward to take part.
Spurred by reports of biopharma executives exercising stock options in conjunction with announcements about COVID-19 vaccine developments and government contracts, U.S. lawmakers want to close the loopholes that make such actions legal.
With strong results in hand from the phase I stage of its phase I/II study testing a would-be COVID-19 subunit vaccine, Novavax Inc.’s president of R&D, Gregory Glenn, said “it’s possible we could go down in the dose” as work proceeds and get similar efficacy.
While biopharmaceutical research is currently concentrating on the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease has provided a sharp reminder that our focus should not be lost on infectious diseases as a whole, along with the growing global problem of antibiotic resistance (AMR), which has the potential to dwarf COVID-19 in terms of deaths and economic costs, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).
