Novavax says Phase 3 trial of omicron-targeting COVID vaccine supports its use as a booster

Novavax Inc.
NVAX,
-1.88%
said Tuesday a late-stage trial of its vaccine targeting the COVID variant omicron supports its continued and future use as a booster. The company said the Phase 3 trial met its main strain-change endpoint. “The data demonstrate that the BA.1 vaccine candidate neutralizing responses in those not previously exposed to COVID-19 were greater than those of the prototype vaccine (NVX-CoV2373), enabling a shift to a new variant vaccine, if necessary,” the company said in a statement. The prototype vaccine induced a broad immune response against the original coronavirus and BA.1 and BA.5 strains. “Today’s results show that use of our prototype vaccine as a booster induces cross-reactive responses to a broad range of variants with the potential to protect against future strains,” said Gregory M. Glenn, president of R&D at Novavax. Our vaccine, which provides broad immune response even in the face of evolving variants, presents a potential strategy to protect against COVID-19 now and into the future.” Novavax shares fell 3.8% premarket and are down 86% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.54%
has fallen 20%.