July 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Novavax Inc’s ( NVAX.O ) COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, clearing the way for a vaccination whose more traditional technology has raised hopes of wider adoption among skeptics in the vaccine.
Shares of Novavax rose 1.3% to $70.89 after its two-dose vaccine became the fourth COVID vaccine approved for use in adults in the United States.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still needs to sign off on the use of the vaccine before it can be made available to people.
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A CDC advisory panel on vaccines is expected to meet Tuesday, but the agenda has not yet been released.
Earlier this week, the US government said it had secured 3.2 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, which it plans to release after the company completes quality testing in the next few weeks.
More than two-thirds of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated with vaccines from Moderna Inc ( MRNA.O ), Pfizer-BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ.N ).
US health officials are hoping that people who have opted out of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccine, which is based on the innovative messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, will choose Novavax’s protein-based injection instead.
The vaccine, already approved in Europe, is based on technology that has been used for decades to fight diseases including hepatitis B and influenza.
“Today’s authorization offers adults in the United States who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine another option that meets FDA’s stringent standards,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement.
In Europe, however, demand for the vaccine has not been significantly high, with about 242,000 doses of the vaccine administered since its launch in December, prompting Novavax to increase its focus on lower-income countries.
The company’s initial application for approval of the vaccine in the US was delayed by almost a year due to development and manufacturing issues, making it a late entrant to the country’s COVID vaccine market.
Novavax forecasts between $4 billion and $5 billion in sales this year. Analysts expect sales at the lower end of that range, according to Refinitiv.
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Reporting by Manas Mishra and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Devika Syamnath
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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