Swiss and French Health Authorities Expand Recommendations for Use of Nuvaxovid COVID-19 Vaccine as a Booster

Novavax announced that Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and France’s Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) have expanded their recommendations for use of Nuvaxovid™(NVX-CoV2373) as a COVID-19 booster.

In Switzerland, the FOPH recommends use of Nuvaxovid as a booster in individuals aged 16 and older for the first booster after priming or after the third dose regardless of previous vaccine history. For booster vaccination, the FOPH preferentially recommends use of Nuvaxovid or a bivalent mRNA vaccine over a monovalent mRNA vaccine, noting that vaccination with Nuvaxovid triggers a somewhat broader immune response than monovalent mRNA vaccines and is therefore less variant specific.

In France, the HAS now recommends Nuvaxovid as a homologous booster dose to enable people who have received a primary vaccination to receive a booster dose. The HAS also gives a favorable opinion for its use as a heterologous booster in adults aged 18 and older who no longer wish or can no longer receive mRNA vaccines.

Nuvaxovid’s breadth of immune response following boosting has been demonstrated in a number of trials including Novavax’ Phase 2 trial in the U.S. and Australia, the PREVENT-19 trial, the Phase 3 COVID-19 Omicron trial, and the U.K.-sponsored COV-BOOST trial. These data have shown the vaccine can induce a functional immune response against circulating Omicron subvariants and that the immune response to these subvariants increases with subsequent boosting.

Novavax’ COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for use as an adult booster in more than 35 countries, and a number of other countries have policy recommendations allowing use of the vaccine as a booster dose. The vaccine is actively under review in other markets and has ongoing trials to further explore its efficacy and safety as a booster.