The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized this Wednesday the use in adults of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine.
The drug is administered in two doses
, which must be applied 21 days apart.
The injection works from protein chains and if approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) it will become an alternative to other vaccines based on mRNA technology, such as those of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
A bottle of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine drug, at the University Hospital of Georgia, on October 7, 2020. Alastair Grant / AP
“Today’s authorization provides adults in the United States who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine with another option that meets the FDA’s rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality necessary to support the vaccine. emergency use authorization,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in a statement.
A committee of
independent experts advising the CDC is expected to meet on July 19 to consider whether to recommend the use of the vaccine
.
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The United States already has 3.2 million doses of the vaccine ready to be shipped to states as soon as it gets the go-ahead from the CDC.
Novavax's vaccine is approved in 40 countries
, as well as in the European Union, but the company delayed its approval process in the United States due to manufacturing problems.
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FDA clearance took “longer than we wanted,” Novavax CEO Stanley Erck said in an interview with our sister network NBC News.
"But we already got the first approval with the FDA for a vaccine in the United States."
Novavax's vaccine uses older technology found in other widely used vaccines, such as hepatitis and shingles.
The vaccine uses synthetic proteins from the coronavirus to teach the body's immune system to recognize pieces of the virus and fight it off.
