The trial aims to include 10,000 participants between the ages of 18 and 84.

Due to the current high level of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and given that it is likely to remain high in the UK, we optimistically anticipate that the trial will have rapid recruitment and produce short-term efficacy results. Novavax vaccine, Gregory Glenn, the company's director of research and development, said in a statement.

It is the eleventh experimental vaccine in the world to enter the final phase of clinical trials, involving tens of thousands of people: half of them receive a placebo and the other half receive the vaccine.

The most advanced western projects are those developed by the British AstraZeneca, a partner at the University of Oxford, and by the American companies Pfizer and Moderna. The Chinese and Russian COVID-19 vaccine projects have also reached the final phase of testing.

Novavax is one of six companies funded by the United States government. It has received more than $1.6 billion in public funds to finance the production of 100 million doses.