Novavax said on Thursday that a preliminary analysis showed the vaccine is also the first to be nearly as effective against the variant of the virus discovered in Britain.

However, it is less effective against the South African variant, only 60% effective among those without HIV.

In a conference call, the company said they expected to take a least 2 to 3 months before they can apply for authorization from the U.

K's regulators.

It's expected they will also apply for use in the European Union.

Approval of the Novavax vaccine would be welcome there as Europe struggles with a sparse supply of vaccines after Pfizer Bio in Tech and AstraZeneca delivered fewer doses than they hoped.

Nova VAX is already stockpiling vaccines at six manufacturing locations and says it expects eight plants and seven countries to produce two billion doses a year, including from the Serum Institute of India on the call.

Novavax executives said they were speaking with the American FDA to see if the early data was enough to apply for US emergency use authorization.

Ah 30,000 person trial in the U.

S and Mexico that began in December is also underway.

The company got $1.6 billion from the U.

S government to fund that trial and for 100 million doses.