Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine approved for Canadians 18 and over
CBC
Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for use in Canadians age 18 and older by Health Canada.
The approval of the vaccine, known as Nuvaxovid, comes about 18 months after the federal government announced a deal to produce batches of it in Montreal.
Health Canada is recommending the interval for the two-dose vaccine to be at least 21 days based on evidence from clinical trials.
It's not immediately clear how much of the vaccine will be supplied to Canada, which is well into its booster-dose campaign. The agency was holding a technical briefing early Thursday afternoon.
Trial data suggests the vaccine is more than 90 per cent effective in preventing severe illness and death.
The trials conducted by Novavax as part of its regulatory filing took place when the Alpha variant of the coronavirus was predominant, and Health Canada says Novavax will be "required to provide data regarding protection against current and emerging variants of concern, when available."
Novavax has conducted trials of its vaccine for use in teens when Delta was the dominant variant.
The most common potential side effects of the vaccine are said to be in line with what has been documented with the four previously approved COVID-19 vaccines in Canada: soreness at the injection spot, chills, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, nausea and headaches.
As it did with several other companies, the federal government struck a deal with Novavax early in the pandemic, with Canada agreeing to purchase 52 million doses.
Subsequently, it was announced that Novavax would produce its own COVID-19 vaccine at the National Research Council (NRC) site in Montreal.
"We expect that there's going to be a circulation of this continuing through 2022 and 2023," John Trizzino, the chief commercial officer and business officer for Novavax, said in an interview with CBC News in mid-2021.
"And so therefore, we think it's important that we have enough production capacity in Canada to satisfy that."
In October 2021, the NRC said in a statement that "the work with Novavax is proceeding as planned."
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