Many participants age 65 and older are dropping out of Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine trial after local governments started vaccinating this population with the two FDA-authorized vaccines, The Washington Post reported Jan. 19.
Benjamin Luft, MD — a Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Hospital infectious-disease expert who is helping oversee the Novavax trial — told The Washington Post he is receiving calls from older participants asking if they can find out whether they received a placebo during the trial so they can drop out and sign up to receive a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
"The number who have been calling me has been significant, and the numbers are increasing," Dr. Luft said. "As we are doing our recruitment, all of a sudden the people over 65 became less interested.''
As of the second full week in January, Novavax said it had enrolled 9,000 participants in the trial and was moving toward its goal of 30,000. If the drugmaker cannot recruit enough participants over age 65, it plans to ask the FDA to consider results from a trial it conducted in the U.K. Gregory Glenn, MD, Novavax’s president of research and development, told The Washington Post the U.K. trial enrolled 15,000 people, 27 percent over 65 years old.
Novavax's vaccine development was stalled by manufacturing roadblocks, as the drugmaker did not have its own production site and had to sign contracts with manufacturers to produce its vaccine for clinical trials. This pushed back the start date for Novavax's phase 3 trial launch from autumn into late December.
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