Novavax shares plunge as company says FDA put hold on two shots

Novavax on Wednesday said the Food and Drug Administration has put a hold on its application for a combination shot targeting Covid and influenza and a stand-alone flu vaccine, sending the company’s shares down sharply. 

The biotech company’s stock fell nearly 20% on Wednesday. The so-called clinical hold is due to a single report of nerve damage in a patient who received the combination shot in a phase two trial that finished in July last year. 

A clinical hold is an order issued by the FDA to a manufacturer to delay or suspend a proposed clinical investigation on a drug.

It is unclear if the pause will impact Novavax’s ability to start and release data on phase three trials on those vaccines. Still, it appears to be a setback for the biotech company, which is scrambling to bring new products to market as demand for its Covid vaccine plummets worldwide.

Novavax said it was working with the FDA to resolve the clinical hold on its combination shot and stand-alone flu vaccine. The company said other trials of its Covid and flu shots had not shown any safety concerns related to the type of nerve damage reported in the patient. 

Novavax said it does not believe there’s an established connection that the vaccine had caused the nerve damage in the patient, but said it is working to provide more information to the FDA. 

“Our goal is to successfully resolve this matter and to start our Phase 3 trial as soon as possible,” Dr. Robert Walker, Novavax’s chief medical officer, said in a release. 

Public health officials see Novavax’s protein-based Covid vaccine as a valuable alternative for people who don’t want to take mRNA shots from Pfizer and Moderna, which use a newer vaccine method to teach cells how to make proteins that trigger an immune response against Covid.

Novavax’s shot, meanwhile, fends off the virus with protein-based technology, a decades-old method used in routine vaccinations against hepatitis B and shingles.