SAN ANTONIO — New vaccines continue to roll out to try to end the coronavirus pandemic. Just yesterday Novavax released results from its trials in the UK and South Africa.
UT Health San Antonio is part of that Novavax trial. Here it started in early January and they are still recruiting people who want to help. They are hoping more people from around the world will take part in these trials which they hope will save lives.
“We are very pleased with how our clinical trial is going here for the Novavax vaccine candidate," said Dr. Barbara Taylor, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at UT Health San Antonio and staff physician with University Health. "We began enrolling on January 7th and have had a lot of interest and a lot of people stepping up to help end of the COVID-19 pandemic."
In the Novavax UK phase 3 clinical trial, they took 15,000 participants between 18 and 84 years of age, 27% were over the age of 65. Results showed 89.3 percent efficacy against the variant. Even better results showed 95.6 percent efficacy against the original virus.
"I think unfortunately we are seeing challenges with this variant which is called the B1.351 variant," Dr. Taylor added.
In that Novavax South Africa phase 2 trial, they took 4,400 participants beginning in August of 2020. A third of the patients enrolled showed previous COVID infection, and also showed only a 60% efficacy for the prevention of mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19.
“Yesterday as well the first two reported cases of the B1.1351 variant, the South African variant were seen in South Carolina so it is our anticipation that we will be seeing some more of this variant in the United States," Dr. Taylor said.
The good news is even though the vaccine in South Africa had lower effectiveness, Novavax is already working on a new vaccine and also has a booster to existing vaccines that can prevent the variant.
If you would like to take part in the UT Health SA portion of the trial you can go to uthealthresearch.com or call 210-469-3206.