UK Expands Authorization of Novavax’s COVID-19 Vaccine to Include Adolescents 12 to 17

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has expanded its conditional marketing authorization of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid to include adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old.

The MHRA previously granted conditional marketing authorization to Nuvaxovid in February for adults 18 years or older.

The expanded authorization was based on results from an ongoing phase 3 clinical trial that demonstrated 80 percent efficacy of the vaccine at a time when the Delta variant was the dominant variant.

Unlike the messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax, Nuvaxovid is a protein-based vaccine that uses recombinant nanoparticle technology.