The vaccine is primarily intended for adults. They get two shots, three weeks apart. The vaccine has not yet been evaluated for children and booster shots. The European Commission has already ordered 100 million doses of the drug, with an option on another 100 million doses. According to the usual distribution, the Netherlands would receive 3.89 percent of this. Novavax has told Reuters news agency that the company can deliver the first doses in January.
“At a time when the omikron variant is spreading rapidly and we need to increase vaccination and boosting, I am very happy with the authorization of the Novavax vaccine,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “I hope this approval will encourage anyone who has not yet been vaccinated to do so. Vaccination and booster shots are our best protection against Covid-19.”
The vaccine Nuvaxovid has been tested on 24,332 people in the United States, Mexico and Great Britain. Of them, 24 contracted the coronavirus. In addition, 15,159 subjects were given a placebo, a saline solution with no effect. In that control group, 159 people became infected. That means the vaccine protects for about 90 percent. That is comparable to the other means.
Most people involved the virus variants alpha, gamma, delta, epsilon and iota. There is still too little data to calculate how the vaccine works against the omikron variant, which is now spreading rapidly.
Four vaccines have been admitted to the European Union to date: Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen. They were all approved after a positive opinion from the EMA. Four other vaccine candidates are one step ahead of approval: Sputnik V, CoronaVac (from Sinovac), Vidprevtyn (from Sanofi Pasteur), and VLA2001 (from Valneva).
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