This week, Germany will offer its population a new protein-based Covid-19 vaccine comparable to conventional flu vaccines, in hopes of shaking up the large minority that remain skeptical of the new mRNA technology used in its most popular vaccines.
About 1.4 million doses of the Nuvaxovid vaccine, developed by US biotech company Novavax, will arrive in Germany this week, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach confirmed last Friday.
Another 1 million doses will arrive next week, with the German government’s total order for 2022 totaling 34 million doses, according to The Guardian.
Novavax has only been used in Indonesia and the Philippines so far, but last December it was approved for use in the EU. It is still awaiting approval in the US as some concerns remain about the company’s production capacity.
Unlike the new mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna or the viral vectors from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, Nuvaxovid is a protein-based subunit vaccine. It contains a non-infectious component on the surface of the Sars-CoV-2 virus that triggers a protective immune response when the body’s immune cells come into contact with it.
Last June, Novavax announced that its vaccine was more than 90% effective against symptomatic alpha infections in trials involving nearly 30,000 volunteers in the US and Mexico.
The company claims that its product is just as effective against the Delta and Omicron variants, especially after a repeat dose given six months after the second injection. The German Paul Ehrlich Institute notes that data proving the vaccine’s effectiveness against more contagious variants remains limited, reports BGNES.
Studies in Germany show significant interest in the Novavax vaccine among the 19.8 million people in the country who have so far refused Covid-19 vaccination. Of the 4,000 unvaccinated hospital staff interviewed in Berlin, 1,800 showed interest in a protein-based vaccine.