A new two-dose vaccine is reported to have achieved 100% efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations based on a conventional apprach and may be an effective booster after previous COVID shots, according to its manufacturers.
Europe-based pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK said Wednesday (February 23) that their new vaccine had an efficacy of 75% against moderate-to-severe disease and showed a 58% efficacy against symptomatic disease in its Phase 3 clinical trial, but was “in line with expected vaccine effectiveness in today’s variants of convert” in a statement obtained by the New York Times.
The companies acknowledged that the number of infections reported during the trial was small, but the efficacy could have been lower in a bigger trial.
The Sanofi-GSK shot increased antibody levels by 18- to 30-fold when used as a booster dose and the companies intend to submit the vaccine for authorization to the proper authorities in both the United States and Europe, as was expected previously, according to the New York Times.
Two doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine were reported to stimulate the production of more neutralizing antibodies than previously approved mRNA vaccines during laboratory studies, but the data has not been published publicly as of Wednesday, the companies confirmed.
The companies were among four candidates to receive billions of dollars in funding as part of the Trump administration’s ‘Operation Warp Speed’ program to accelerate vaccines during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
