US biotech company Novavax Inc has joined the race to test coronavirus vaccine candidates on humans and said it was targeting production of over a billion doses of its vaccine candidate next year.
The company, which enrolled its first participants on Monday, said it expected preliminary data on safety and indicators of an immune response from the trial in July.
The announcement of Novavax’s vaccine trial comes as drugmakers pause clinical trials on drugs for other ailments to focus on COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus that has resulted in more than 346,000 deaths globally.
