COVID-19 Vaccine Composition Update May Not be Warranted

The journal Vaccine published results from a peer-reviewed study that concluded a fourth dose of Novavax Inc.'s NVX-CoV2373 protein-based COVID-19 vaccine enhanced immunogenicity for ancestral and variant SARS-CoV-2 strains without increasing reactogenicity, indicating that updates to the vaccine composition may not be currently warranted.

Furthermore, correlates of protection imply post-boost efficacy of ≥ 82% for Omicron variants.

Published on June 2, 2023, this study reported a fourth dose of NVX-CoV2373 (5 µg SARS-CoV-2 recombinant spike protein + 50 µg Matrix-M™ adjuvant) did not increase local/systemic reactogenicity, enhanced immune response to SARS-CoV-2 variants, and NVX-CoV2373 fourth dose induced robust immunogenicity in those aged 18–84 years.

In conclusion, despite the call for variant-specific vaccines, an increase in the number of vaccine booster doses with NVX-CoV2373 enhances immunogenicity for the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain and its variants without a notable increase in reactogenicity. Therefore, these data suggest that further boosting with the ancestral sequence used in NVX-CoV2373 should retain meaningful utility in preventing variant virus-associated illness, wrote these researchers.

This work was supported by Novavax, Inc. and initially by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

As of June 5, 2023, Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine (Nuvaxovid, CovoVax, NVX-CoV2373) was authorized in forty markets.