U.S. biotech group Novavax Inc has joined the race to test coronavirus vaccine candidates on humans and enrolled its first participants on Monday.

Novavax, shares in which surge about 23% to $56.50 in premarket trade, said it expects preliminary readings on safety and on indicators of an immune response from the trial in July.

The Phase I portion is a randomised, observer-blinded, placebo-controlled trial designed to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of NVX-CoV2373, both adjuvanted with Matrix-M and unadjuvanted, in around 130 healthy participants 18 to 59 years of age at two sites in Australia.

Source: reuters, pharmatimes