The ever-evolving landscape of Covid-19 vaccines shifted again on Monday, with Moderna winning full approval for its jab from the Food and Drug Administration, and Novavax submitting a long-awaited application to the agency for an emergency use authorization for its vaccine.
The approval of Moderna’s vaccine, Spikevax, makes it the country’s second fully licensed vaccine to protect against SARS-CoV-2. It’s also the first product the Cambridge, Mass., biotech has brought through licensure in the United States. The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, Comirnaty, became the first to be fully approved in August.
Novavax, a biotech based in Gaithersburg, Md., also notched a milestone as it filed for authorization of its vaccine, the first time it has sought FDA authorization for a product. Its vaccine, currently known as NVX-CoV2373, is made differently than the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which both deploy messenger RNA to teach the immune system to recognize and attack SARS-2 viruses. Novavax’s jab is a so-called protein vaccine, which delivers nanoparticles of the SARS-2 spike protein to the immune system to activate its defenses against the virus. The application is for use in people 18 and older.
Read more at STAT News.