Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) news for Wednesday concerning a trial for a vaccine to treat the coronavirus from China has NVAX stock flying high.
A Novavax news release reveals that the company has identified NVX-CoV2373 as a possible coronavirus vaccine candidate. This is a prefusion protein made using the company’s proprietary nanoparticle technology.
According to the Novavax news release, the company is planning to initiate a first-in-human trial in mid-May. This will have it combining the vaccine candidate with its Matrix-M to “enhance immune responses and stimulate high levels of neutralizing antibodies.”
Novavax notes that it has already seen positive results from the coronavirus vaccine candidate in preclinical trials. This saw the company using the vaccine candidate in animals.
Matthew Frieman, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said this about the NVAX stock news.
“We validated that NVX-CoV2373 generates high titer neutralizing antibodies against live SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is strong evidence that the vaccine created by Novavax has the potential to be highly immunogenic in humans which could lead to protection from COVID-19 and helping to control the spread of this disease.”
The Novavax news release mentions that the company wants to combine Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine candidate. It hopes that this will allow it to more rapidly test the vaccine so it can be used to stem the spread of coronavirus.
NVAX stock was up 14.33% as of Wednesday afternoon.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
