Novavax shares close lower on Monday, company’s coronavirus vaccine shows over 90% efficacy in US trial

Novavax Inc’s (NVAX) late-stage data from its US-based clinical trial, encompassing 30,000 volunteers from the United States and Mexico, has shown that the company’s vaccine is over 90% effective against the novel coronavirus across a range of its variants.

The company’s protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate showed an over 93% efficacy against the most spread variants of the novel coronavirus that have been of concern among scientists and public health officials.

Novavax said that during the trial, the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant, which had originally been detected in the United Kingdom, became the most common variant of the disease in the United States.

According to Dr. Gregory Glenn, Novavax’s head of research and development, COVID-19 variants first detected in Brazil, South Africa and India were also discovered among participants in the trial.

Novavax shares closed lower for the third time in the past ten trading sessions on NASDAQ on Monday. The stock went down 0.94% ($1.97) to $207.71, after touching an intraday high at $229.27. The latter has been a price level not seen since May 3rd ($238.99).

Shares of Novavax Inc have risen 86.27% so far this year, following a 2,701.76% gain in 2020.

The company said its vaccine had shown 91% efficacy among volunteers at high risk of severe infection and 100% efficacy in prevention of moderate and severe cases of the illness.

When it comes to side effects, participants in the study experienced mostly mild headache, fatigue and muscle pain, while only a small number of them experienced severe side effects, Novavax said.

The company also said that it was on track to file for emergency authorization of its vaccine in the United States and elsewhere during the third quarter of this year.

It also expects to produce 100 million vaccine doses per month by the end of Q3 and 150 million doses per month in Q4 of 2021.