Trust researchers help prove COVID vaccine effectiveness

Researchers and staff at the Trust have played their part proving the effectiveness of the new Novavax COVID-19 vaccine. 

Novavax announced last night that the vaccine had been shown to be 89.3% effective including against some variants of the virus.  

Our Clinical Research Facility and other research staff ran one of the 21 trial sites. Out of 15,000 participants in the UK, 575 participants were recruited to the Phase 3 (effectiveness) trial at the Trust—some of our participants were Trust staff or their family or friends. 

Dr Marta Boffito (the Trust Principal Investigator) said: “This is an important study increasing the number of effective vaccines against coronavirus. It has been a pleasure to work with the whole R&D team to make our contribution, and our thanks to all those who volunteered for the study.

“The MHRA will need to approve the vaccine’s use and the independent JCVI will decide on what basis it should be offered. The vaccines already in use in the UK are safe and effective and we  strongly advise those offered a vaccine appointment to take that jab now.”

The trial shows the importance of volunteers who give up their time to help us examine the safety and effectiveness of new treatments. The Trust’s Clinical Research Facility is a dedicated resource, working with R&D colleagues, allowing us to support such trials.

Some volunteers for this study came from the NHS COVID-19 Vaccine Research Registry. London residents can continue to support the national effort to speed up vaccine research and receive more information about volunteering for future vaccine studies by visiting www.nhs.uk/researchcontact.

This study was supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network North West London.