Novavax's new corona vaccine before approval: Karl Lauterbach confident

Created: 12/20/2021, 09:08 AM

From: Jennifer Greve

Many people are waiting for further corona vaccines to be approved.

Novavax's vaccine is about to be launched.

Karl Lauterbach expects positive news.

Frankfurt - Karl Lauterbach * (SPD *), Germany's new Federal Minister of Health, is pushing the Corona * vaccinations forward.

In relation to the current vaccination efforts, he also spoke about the corona vaccine from the US manufacturer Novavax.

Lauterbach reckons that the EU medicines agency EMA will approve the vaccine.

The EMA experts will advise on the approval on Monday (December 20th, 2021).

However, Lauterbach warned against overestimating the new vaccine during the picture broadcast “The Right Questions”.

One should refrain from assuming that the Novavax * vaccine is a "game changer".

He pointed out that studies have shown that the vaccines from Moderna and Biontech, which have already been administered millions of times, are "a whole lot safer".

Novavax vaccine: Karl Lauterbach wonders about the wrong name for dead vaccine

Lauterbach wrote something similar on Twitter when he responded to a post from Florian Krammer, a professor of vaccination studies.

He made a serious request: “Can you please stop calling the Novavax vaccine a dead vaccine?

It's a recombinant protein vaccine. "

A medical worker prepares a dose of Novavax's corona vaccine for vaccination during the study at St. George's University Hospital in London.

The vaccine is currently being reviewed by the EMA.

Lauterbach is awaiting approval.

© Alastair Grant / dpa

Lauterbach responded with a reference to the fact that the mRNA vaccines against the coronavirus had already "proven themselves billions of times" - and that Novavax was only misleadingly named "because so many unvaccinated people only wanted dead vaccine" *.

New corona vaccine: EMA decides on approval of the Novavax vaccine

The responsible commission, made up of experts, will deal with the application for approval in an extraordinary meeting, according to a statement from the EMA, which is based in Amsterdam. The experts evaluated studies on the effects and risks in the ongoing test procedure. After the experts recommend approval, the EU Commission still has to give its approval. However, this is a formality.

So far, four corona vaccines * have been approved in the EU: two mRNA vaccines, the preparations from Biontech * and Moderna * and two vector vaccines, the vaccines from Astrazeneca * and Johnson & Johnson *.

The Novavax preparation could now possibly persuade some non-vaccinated people who have doubts about the principle of action of the other active ingredients to vaccinate.

Novavax's vaccine contains tiny particles made up of a laboratory-made version of the Sars-CoV-2 spike protein.

Vaccination status in Germany: Experts expect new vaccines to increase

So far, as of Monday (December 20, 2021), 58.4 million people in Germany have been fully vaccinated against the corona virus. That corresponds to 70.2 percent of the total population. Approximately 25.2 million people (30.3 percent) received a booster vaccination. The new vaccines from Novavax (protein-based vaccine) and Valneva (dead vaccine) * also aim to reach people who are skeptical of other vaccines. However, there are repeated delays in the approval of Novavax and Valneva *.

Around every fourth person in Germany has not yet received a first vaccination against the coronavirus.

However, this also includes younger children under the age of five who are not yet allowed to be vaccinated and older children who have only recently started vaccinations, as well as people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

The hope that lies in the new vaccines could increase the vaccination rate, according to scientific circles.

(jey / dpa)