On the positive side for Novavax and $Novavax (NVAX.US)$ sto...

On the positive side for Novavax and $Novavax(NVAX.US)$ stock, on Dec. 20, a European Medicines Agency (EMA) panel recommended that Novavax be able to market its vaccine for the coronavirus to adults in the EU.

As a result of this news, the EMA, the EU’s version of the Food and Drug Administration, is very likely to approve Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine for adults. And since the EU has agreed to purchase up to 200 million doses of Novavax’s vaccine, the approval is likely to lead to significant revenue for the company. And those sales, in turn, will probably lift NVAX stock in the medium term.

What’s more, after the EMA’s approval, I think that the FDA is much more likely than not to approve Novavax’s vaccine for three reasons. First, the EMA’s approval does indicate that the vaccine is safe and effective against the coronavirus.

Secondly, after the U.S. effectively discouraged the use of $Johnson & Johnson(JNJ.US)$ vaccine because of a side effect, I believe that Washington will want to have a shot that can appeal to those Americans who are nervous about the mRNA vaccines made by $Pfizer(PFE.US)$ and $Moderna(MRNA.US)$ . It is, after all, true that the mRNA shots are based on relatively new technology and that Novavax’s vaccine is based on older, more conventional methods.

“The Novavax vaccine has no genetic material, only proteins,” Dr. Diana Florescu, who oversaw the Phase 3 trial of the shot, said in June, according to Nebraska Medicine. “The vaccine technology is more traditional, and it’s very similar to a protein-based influenza vaccine.”