MARYLAND – The advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, for its acronym in English), voted this Tuesday in favor of approving the vaccine against the coronavirus of the pharmaceutical company Novavax.
Of the FDA advisory panel, 21 members voted in favor of approval and one abstained, while no one voted against the new two-dose vaccine. The FDA must now approve emergency use of the vaccine, though it generally follows the recommendations of its advisory panel.
Novavax’s vaccine would become the fourth approved in the United States, after those from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
Approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still pending for the Novavax vaccine to be distributed and available to adults 18 years of age and older.
It’s late in the pandemic for a new option in the US, with about three-quarters of US adults already vaccinated.
But the company hopes to find a niche among some of the unvaccinated millions who might agree to a more traditional type of protein vaccineand also become a booster option regardless of which one people get first.
Novavax’s vaccine is already used in parts of Europe and multiple countries.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE NOVAVAX VACCINE AND OTHERS APPROVED IN THE UNITED STATES
Health experts are watching closely to see if this new tool offers advantages in either attracting those resistant to the vaccine or perhaps even offering somewhat broader immunity.
22% of the total US population has not yet received even one dose of the virus vaccines. Only about half of vaccinated adults have received a booster.
Novavax’s vaccine trains the body to fight the coronavirus by delivering copies of its outer coating, the Spike protein.
Those copies of Spike are grown in insect cells, purified and packaged in nanoparticles that resemble a virus to the immune system, the Novavax researchers said.
An immune-boosting ingredient, made from the bark of a South American tree, is then added to act as a red flag to ensure those particles look suspicious enough to provoke a strong response.
Ivette Machín has the information.
Protein vaccines have been used for years to prevent hepatitis B, shingles, and other diseases.
It’s a very different approach than Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines.
So-called MRNA vaccines have saved countless lives and turned the tide of the pandemic, but some people are still uncomfortable with new technology that delivers genetic instructions for the body to make its own copies of the Spike protein.
A third option, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, is not as widely used.
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