April 15, 2021 -- Novavax announced it will participate in a newly expanded phase II trial to study NVX-CoV2373, its recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The candidate vaccine is one of four that will be studied to evaluate the potential for combined regimens that mix vaccines from different manufacturers to achieve immune protection against COVID-19.
The "Com-COV2" study will include 1,050 adults 50 years of age or older who received their first vaccination during the prior eight to 12 weeks. Volunteer study participants will receive one of four different vaccines as a second dose, 350 of whom will be administered NVX-CoV2373. The research will compare the immune system responses from those who receive a heterologous regimen to those who receive a homologous regimen.
In addition, NVX-CoV2373 continues to be evaluated in phase III trials, one in the U.K that demonstrated efficacy of 96.4% against the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and 89.7% overall, and one in the U.S. and Mexico (the Prevent-19 trial) that began in December 2020. It is also being tested in two ongoing phase II studies that began in August 2020: a phase IIB trial in South Africa that demonstrated 48.6% efficacy against a newly emerging escape variant, and a phase I/II continuation in the U.S. and Australia.