Last week, the TGA provisionally approved Nuvaxovid, a new COVID-19 vaccine for Australia. Are you up to date with the key details of this new vaccine?
About the vaccine
Nuvaxovid, also known as NVX-CoV2373, is a protein-based vaccine that includes a stabilised form of the coronavirus spike protein. This new vaccine uses a non-infectious protein component found on the surface of the coronavirus. Following vaccination, a person’s immune cells recognise the non-infectious protein component as a foreign element and mount an immune response.
The Nuvaxovid vaccine has been approved by the TGA for active immunisation against COVID-19 in anyone who is 18 years of age or older. The current recommendation is two doses, administered three weeks apart. The vaccine is currently only approved as a primary vaccine, not as a booster.
Effectiveness
Data so far suggest the vaccine has a high level of effectiveness, comparable to those of other vaccines available in Australia. According to one clinical trial, involving a total of 29,960 people from Mexico and the United States, the vaccine led 90.4% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease. The drug also produced a 100% protection against moderate and severe disease. For people at high risk of complications, like anyone over the age of 65 or people with co-morbidities, the drug showed 91% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease.
Side effects
According to a report from the European Medicines Agency, the most common side effects reported for this vaccine include headache, nausea (feeling sick) or vomiting, muscle and joint pain, tenderness and pain at the injection site, tiredness and feeling unwell. These side effects were usually mild or moderate and improved within days after the vaccination.
Less common side effects reported for Nuvaxovid include redness and swelling at the injection site, fever, chills and pain in the limbs, which occur in less than one out of 10 people. Even less common side effects, occurring in less than 1 of 100 people, include enlarged lymph nodes, high blood pressure, rash, reddening of the skin, itching at the injection site and itchy rash.
The new vaccine may help increase Australia’s vaccination rates. According to Lieutenant General John Frewen, who is co-ordinating Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, a small percentage of Australians may be waiting for this the new vaccine to become available. “We sort of think there’s probably about one or two per cent of the population that may have been holding out for Novavax. You know, that’s a choice that they have made, but once it’s approved, it’ll be available. And again, if anyone has decided that’s what they want to wait for, they’ll be able to get it as quickly as they can,” he said in a recent interview.