Our recombinant, protein-based nanoparticle vaccine technology

These protein-based nanoparticles work with our proprietary Matrix-M™ adjuvant, which helps enhance the immune response in the body.

Vaccination has been used to control certain diseases since the late 18th century, when Edward Jenner used matter from cowpox lesions to inoculate people against smallpox.¹ Since then, as understanding and technology have progressed, vaccination has become a key method to help prevent the transmission of some infectious diseases. In fact, only access to clean water has a greater positive impact on global health than vaccinations.²

Attenuated vaccines 

Older vaccines, such as those used successfully against measles and polio, use a dead or weakened pathogen to activate the body’s immune system and stimulate antibody production. However, in someone with a compromised immune system, an attenuated pathogen may still cause sickness, and a dead pathogen may not result in a strong enough or long-lasting immune response.³ While these types of vaccines are still in use for helping to prevent many diseases, additional vaccine technologies have been developed.

Protein Vaccines 

Over recent decades, protein-based vaccines have been developed and successfully used to help combat infectious diseases such as diphtheria and tetanus. Instead of using the whole pathogen, these vaccines use a specific protein from the pathogen (known as an antigen), which has no function on its own but can be recognized by the body’s immune system.⁴ When isolated, purified, and injected into the body, this protein-based vaccine can provoke an immune response to help protect the body from infection without causing the disease.³

Recombinant Technology  

New  scientific techniques have further improved the processes used to develop these protein-based vaccines, making it quicker and easier to identify the best antigen for use in the vaccine and to produce this material in the quantities required.

One process that is crucial to the production of many vaccines, including ours, is genetic engineering. This technique enables Novavax scientists to use the genetic material from target pathogens to create highly purified, specific recombinant proteins.^5,6

Creating a recombinant protein is only the first step in producing a Novavax vaccine. In our vaccines, we organize recombinant proteins in a nanoparticle. This arrangement helps the immune system recognize that target protein from different angles⁷—the same way that it would see the details of a real pathogen. In our vaccines, there’s no actual virus, just the protein. The vaccines can’t cause the disease.

Learning to recognize vaccine proteins in this way helps train the immune system to develop protective antibodies that can help prevent illness.^9,10

COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The virus uses a protein on its surface, known as the spike protein, to attach itself to human cells and cause infection.¹¹ Novavax makes a protein that mimics the virus’ version of the spike protein. In our vaccine, we organize spike proteins into a nanoparticle to help the immune system recognize the target spike. Learning to recognize the spike proteins in this way helps the immune system protect you from getting sick from COVID-19.

Nanoparticles with spike proteins are just 1 of 2 important parts of the Novavax vaccine. The spike protein is the “signal,” but to generate immunity that may help protect against COVID-19, the immune system needs to hear that signal loud and clear.

That signal boost comes from Novavax's Matrix-M adjuvant. These tiny adjuvant particles increase the activity of the immune system.^8,12 Together, the vaccine’s spike protein and Matrix-M adjuvant help stimulate a protective immune response.

On their own, the vaccine’s spike protein nanoparticles are not enough to trigger a full immune response, so we mix them with our proprietary Matrix-M adjuvant to help produce a stronger immune signal with the aim of creating immunity.¹³

For full information on the efficacy of our vaccine, please visit https://novavaxcovidvaccine.com.