Novavax vaccine: half a million doses by March, its differences from mRNA

Greece will have another powerful “weapon” against the pandemic. This is Novavax’s first protein-based coronavirus vaccine.

As it became known, Novavax vaccines will arrive in our country on Monday, February 21. This drug is based on a technology different from other vaccines known to us, mRNA (Pfizer, Moderna) and classic (AstraZeneca and Jhonson & Jhonson).

474,000 doses of Novavax by March

During a briefing on the progress of the vaccination program on 1.02.2022, Secretary General of Primary Health Care Marios Themistekleous announced that our country is expected to receive “474,000 doses, initially 21/2 – 168,000 doses” between February and March.

At the same time, it became known that vaccinations with the drug of the American company will be done in individual vaccination centers and regions of the country from the beginning of March.

Novavax vaccine: Greece follows in the footsteps of France

The first country whose health authorities approved the Novavax vaccine was Indonesia. With Coreper’s approval, France announced it would receive its first doses of the coronavirus drug in the last week of February. On January 28, Israel signed an agreement to purchase 5,000,000 doses of Novavax vaccine. The drugs are expected to arrive in the country in the coming months, subject to regulatory approval. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Novavax has applied for emergency approval for its Covid-19 vaccine in several other countries, including the UK, Canada and New Zealand.

Novavax seeks US approval for vaccine

Novavax announced on Monday that it has formally applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow emergency use of its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States. The concern also provided data, including the results of two large clinical trials, which showed the effectiveness of the vaccine – 90%.

“We believe this drug offers us an alternative based on a well-researched protein vaccine platform that can make a significant difference in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Novavax President Stanley Erk. The company announced in June that its NVX-CoV2373 vaccine candidate has an overall efficacy of 90.4% in GPHS clinical trials conducted in the US and Mexico.

One advantage of Novavax is that it can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures of 2 to 8°C for up to nine months.

Technology other than mRNA vaccines

The Novavax protein vaccine, which was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) last December, uses a different technology than mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

According to the Greek Ministry of Health, it will be administered in two doses. It has been found to be effective against a number of strains of the novel coronavirus. This will be an alternative for those who do not want to make a vaccine that uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

Novavax announced that the introduction of a booster dose of the vaccine further enhances the immune response (including against the Omicron strain).

“We are encouraged that the enhanced response against all strains was comparable to that associated with high vaccine efficacy in our phase 3 clinical trials,” said Gregory M. Glenn, lead researcher and developer of Novavax.

What is the difference between mRNA and protein vaccines?

MRNA vaccines aim to instruct our cells to build their own defense mechanism.

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