The European Union’s top drug regulator on Monday recommended clearance for Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, despite the fact that other coronavirus vaccines from companies like Pfizer and Moderna have received more widespread approval.
The vaccine produced by Maryland-based Novavax and the Serum Institute of India has been approved for use in the European Union by the European Medicines Agency.
The EMA’s proposal came just two days after the World Health Organization gave the vaccine emergency approval in low-income countries.
Last month, Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, became the first to approve the vaccine for emergency use.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended approval for people over the age of 18, noting recent trials done in Mexico, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The vaccination exhibited a 90.4 percent efficiency in lowering symptomatic COVID-19 cases, according to a Mexico-US study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The British study, which was also published in the journal, found that it was 89.7 percent effective.
The EMA stated on Monday that both studies were conducted while just the Alpha and Beta coronavirus variants were prominent, and there is minimal data on how Novavax’s vaccine performs against the more transmissible Delta and Omicron versions.
