A mixture Covid/flu shot might have a number of benefits.
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On Wednesday, Maryland-based vaccine producer Novavax launched preliminary outcomes from an early medical part research of its mixture Covid/flu vaccine. The outcomes discovered that the mixture vaccine produced immune responses in sufferers that have been comparable with these of its stand-alone flu and Covid vaccines. The corporate additionally discovered the vaccine formulation to be secure, with principally delicate unwanted side effects.
“We’re inspired by these information and the potential path ahead for a mixture Covid-19-influenza vaccine in addition to stand-alone vaccines for influenza and Covid-19,” Gregory Glenn, Novavax’s president of R&D, mentioned in an announcement.
Novavax’s vaccine differs from the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna. Its vaccines use nanoparticles that mimic proteins from the coronavirus or influenza virus (or each, within the case of the mixture vaccine). The nanoparticles are injected into sufferers together with an adjuvant, which is a chemical that helps stimulate the immune system, which causes the sufferers to develop antibodies in opposition to Covid and flu.
The corporate’s flu vaccine is presently in part 3 trials. At a media briefing on Wednesday morning, Novavax’s chief medical officer Filip Dubovsky mentioned information from these trials up to now present larger antibody responses for sufferers with Novavax’s vaccine in opposition to a number of strains of flu in comparison with sufferers who acquired an permitted flu vaccine. Full efficacy information was not introduced, however Dubovsky highlighted equally excessive antibody responses in opposition to H3N2 flu strains, in opposition to which current vaccines have low efficacy.
Novavax’s Covid vaccine has been licensed to be used in over 40 nations world wide, together with the EU and most recently, Japan. The corporate utilized for emergency authorization with the FDA in January. Though the inventory has been trending downward as Covid restrictions proceed to raise in most locations world wide, Jefferies analysts Roger Tune and Xiangyu Ma wrote in a report Tuesday that considerations for the corporate’s long-term prospects are “overstated,” as they see Covid turning into “an endemic illness requiring efficient/tolerated common vaccination.”
The subsequent step for the mixture Covid/flu vaccine can be a part 2 medical trial, which Dubovsky says ought to start by the top of this yr. That trial can be aimed towards optimizing the best dose for the Covid and flu antigens, in addition to the best dose for the adjuvant. Following a profitable part 2, a part 3 trial could be timed for a flu season, hopefully in 2023, although Dubovsky admits this will depend upon what the present Covid state of affairs seems like, as Covid mitigation measures have slowed down the circulation of influenza for the previous two years.
For Dubovsky, the important thing benefit of the mixture vaccine is that it requires much less materials than two separate pictures would. So if the trials pan out and the mixture vaccine goes available on the market, he says, that “permits us to fabricate many extra doses so we are able to attain extra lives.”
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