The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has authorised the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for use in the UK following rigorous clinical trials which saw over 1,600 volunteers from Greater Manchester take part, including those from Stockport. Stockport NHS Foundation Trust’s Research and Innovation team recruited local volunteers for the study.

After trials supported by the National Institute for Health Research, MHRA analysis has concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness. 1,655 volunteers took part in Greater Manchester, which was the UK’s highest recruiting region to the trial. The volunteers participated in the trial at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust.

The Novavax study found the COVID-19 vaccine was 89.7% effective at preventing COVID-19, prior to the Omicron variant emerging.

The study, led by researchers at St George’s, University of London, is the largest ever double blind, placebo-controlled vaccine trial to be undertaken in the UK, recruiting 15,203 participants from 33 research UK sites in just eight weeks, between September 2020 and November 2020.

Helped by the invaluable support of these participants, and research teams in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Novavax has become the fifth COVID-19 vaccine to be authorised by the MHRA. It follows the Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen vaccines – but is the first protein-based vaccine approved in the UK.

The Novavax vaccine has also been authorised by the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organisation, meaning participants in the study will have their vaccination status recognised outside of the UK. Until this time, a number of countries had refused to recognise the vaccinated status of people who had taken part in this trial, leading to them facing difficulties in international travel.

 Dr David Baxter, Principal Investigator for the trial at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, said:

 “The Stockport vaccine team is delighted to learn that the vaccine has been approved for use in the UK. We are indebted to the hundreds of participants who were involved in the trial at our trust. It’s thanks to their willingness to be part of this research that we now have another safe and effective vaccine to protect people against COVID-19 in the UK and globally.

“I would also like to thank staff from across our trust and our NHS partner organisations in Greater Manchester who have worked tirelessly on this trial from start to finish.  An incredible amount of commitment and dedication from a great many NHS Research and Innovation colleagues has made this announcement possible.”