Wits University’s Covid-19 vaccine trial has officially gone into its second phase.
As of 17 August, Wits University will begin screening participants for their Covid-19 trial. The Phase 2 trial in South Africa will evaluate if the nanoparticle S-protein, in the Covid-19 vaccine known as NVX-CoV2373, protects against Covid-19 disease in adults aged 18 to 64 years old. Wits Professor of Vaccinology, Shabir Madhi will lead the Novavax clinical trial in South Africa after having engaged personally with Novavax to motivate for clinical development of the vaccine to be undertaken in this country. In the first phase of clinical trial, NVX-CoV2373 was generally well-tolerated and elicited robust antibody responses numerically superior to that seen in human convalescent sera.
Madhi has once again highlighted the importance of Africa being involved in the Covid-19 vaccine finding mission. He explained, “The major motivation for Covid-19 vaccines being evaluated at an early stage in South Africa is to generate evidence in the African context on how well these vaccines work in settings such as our own.” He stated that this would enable informed decision-making when advocating for the adoption of this or other Covid-19 vaccines in African countries, once they are shown to be safe and effective. “Participating in the clinical development of these vaccines at the outset will assist in advocating for South Africans to be amongst the first in line to access these life-saving vaccines, once they become available.”
The Novavax vaccine candidate is called NVX-CoV2373. This vaccine candidate is engineered from the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 disease. In preclinical studies, the potential vaccine demonstrated the elicitation of antibodies that block the binding of spike protein to receptors targeted by the virus. This is a critical aspect for effective vaccine protection according to the university. Studies of this Novavax vaccine in non-human primates have shown protection against SARS-Cov-2 infection in upper airways (nasal passages) as well as protection against lower airway (lung) disease.
