Novavax says data show no benefit for bivalent vaccine compared to BA.1 vaccine

Novavax announced earlier topline results from its Phase 3 Boosting Trial for the SARS-CoV-2 rS Variant Vaccines showing that the company’s BA.1 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2515, met the primary 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. Additionally, data show no benefit for the Novavax bivalent vaccine candidate compared to the BA.1 vaccine candidate or prototype vaccine in the overall trial population. Immunoglobulin G antibody responses against BA.1 and prototype strains showed similar responses across the three vaccine groups. Importantly, for the BA.5 strain, which is structurally similar to BA.1, pseudoneutralization responses demonstrated that there was no benefit for the BA.1 or bivalent vaccine candidates compared to the prototype vaccine. Overall, the data demonstrated that the prototype vaccine induced a broad immune response against original prototype, BA.1, and BA.5 strains. The prototype vaccine induced robust IgG responses to both BA.1 and the matched prototype strain. Pseudoneutralization responses against BA.5 for the prototype vaccine were comparable to those induced by the more closely matched BA.1 vaccine and bivalent vaccine candidates… When given as a second booster dose, or fourth dose, all three vaccine formulations were similarly well-tolerated, consistent with the well-established safety profile of the prototype vaccine," the company stated. "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. This is a hallmark of our vaccine technology and shows the suitability of our current prototype vaccine as a booster even as the COVID-19 landscape continues to evolve. 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," said Gregory M. Glenn, M.D., President of Research and Development, Novavax.