FOX 5 Atlanta: FDA Set to Decide on Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine
Morehouse School of Medicine Vaccine Trial Unit Co-Director Dr. Lilly Immergluck speaks
with
FOX 5 Atlanta about MSM’s clinical trial of Novavax vaccine.
Dr. Lilly Immergluck
Co-Director, MSM Vaccine Trial Unit
Professor, Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry & Immunology
ATLANTA – June 9, 2022 – Eighteen months after launching the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine trial at Morehouse School of Medicine with 173 volunteers, 66 percent of them African American, Dr. Lilly Immergluck got word Tuesday an FDA advisory panel had voted nearly unanimously to recommend the agency authorize the Novavax vaccine.
Immergluck is co-director of the MSM Vaccine Trial Unit who’s also a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry & Immunology, an attending pediatrician at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and an infectious disease expert at MSM. When Immergluck got the news about the advisory panel’s recommendation, she was thrilled.
"I did my happy dance with my team," Immergluck laughs. "Yeah, we were so grateful."
If it is green-lighted by the FDA, Novavax would be the fourth COVID-19 vaccine authorized by the FDA for emergency use in the US.
It uses different technology than the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna most Americans have received. Novavax is protein-based vaccine, developed with the same technology used to make vaccines for Hepatitis B and shingles.
Dr. Immergluck says it delivers tiny pieces of the spike protein located on the surface of the coronavirus to help the body's immune system recognize and respond to the virus.
In the study, the Novavax vaccine was 90 percent effective at prevent symptomatic COVID-19, although it was tested before the highly contagious Omicron variant surfaced.
"There is no live virus – there isn't even a whole virus, killed or otherwise – that is being injected," Immergluck says. "It is really the spike protein. But the way I think about it, is, if your body can mount an immune response against the spike protein, then when you see the real deal – which is covered by spike protein, the virus is covered by spike protein – then it should do what it needs to do to keep you from getting infected."
About two-thirds of Americans are fully vaccinated, but tens of millions have not received a single dose.
Dr. Immergluck says she's hopeful the Novavax vaccine may sway some holdouts. "But, honestly, (get) any of the vaccines that are out there," she says. "The mRNA technology, we've got millions of people that have been vaccinated with it. It really does stand up to say about its safety profile. So, I don't want to dissuade people from getting vaccinated against COVID, because that's the most important thing."
By Beth Galvin, FOX Medical Team, FOX 5 Atlanta