Trials show that the Novavax vaccine is 89 percent effective and even combats Kent mutation. The UK has pre-ordered 60 million doses of the vaccine, with the Health Secretary hailing the results as a 'breakthrough'.
Britain is moments away from approving a fourth coroanvirus vaccine, after trials in the UK showed it to be highly effective against the Kent variant too. The Novavax vaccine, which Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi was himself injected with as part of the trial, is 89.3 percent effective in preventing coronavirus.
Serendipitously, the study was conducted during the period the new Covid-19 variant was first observed in Kent and began to circulate widely. It was shown to be highly effective in preventing infection from the mutated virus, reports The Telegraph.
The results will now be submitted to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and if approved, the jab will become the fourth available for use in Britain alongside AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna.
Britain has already secured 60 million doses of the new vaccine, which will be produced in Stockton on Tees. If (or, rather, when) approved, it will give Britain access to 217 million vaccine doses in total.
So, with Novavax, Britain will definitely have one vaccine that can work immediately against the mutated virus. The other vaccines can be tweaked to make them effective against the variant but it may take up to six weeks.
Britain will be able to vaccinate the entire nation against new Covid strains within four months after a £158m super-factory opens later this year in Oxfordshire. In good news for the UK's battle against Covid-19 and any new variants that rear their ugly heads in the future, Dr Matthew Duchars, chief executive of the Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (VMIC), revealed the Oxfordshire facility will be capable of producing 70m doses of an emergency vaccine manufactured entirely on British soil. The centre is already helping to manufacture the Oxford vaccine by lending expertise to the AstraZeneca team. More...