Novavax COVID-19 vaccine: How it works and other things you should know

Biotech company Novavax announced that its vaccine was highly effective in clinical trials, putting it on track to become the fourth vaccine available in the U.S.

Maryland-based biotech company Novavax said Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine was shown to be highly effective in clinical trials, which puts it on track to become the fourth vaccine available in the United States. Given the abundance of vaccines in the U.S., Novavax's vaccine may be available first in low- and middle-income countries through COVAX, the global vaccine sharing alliance. "At least in the foreseeable future, we’re going to have a bigger impact" outside the United States, Stanley Erck, president and CEO of Novavax, told the Wall Street Journal. To date, Novavax has pledged 1.1 billion doses of its vaccine to COVAX. While the vaccine still needs to be greenlighted by U.S. regulators, Novavax is on track to manufacture 100 million doses per month by the end of the third quarter and 150 million doses per month by the end of the fourth quarter. The company said it intends to apply for emergency use authorization from the Food & Drug Administration by this fall and plans to share more details from its Phase 3 trials as that data becomes available.