The jab, seen as an alternative for people who are vaccine-hesitant, is widely available in the EU but still not cleared for use in the UK.
More than 92% of over-12s in the UK have already received at least one of those Covid jabs - but that still leaves around five million people unvaccinated.
"I think [the Novavax vaccine] could make a difference," says Dr Peter English, a retired consultant in communicable disease control and former editor of the journal Vaccines in Practice. "Every single one of our neighbours in the EU - Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands - they all have access to Novavax. The UK is an island in the middle that doesn't."
Medicine regulators also continue to collect data, so vaccine safety can be monitored and any possible adverse reactions can be investigated.The wait to make the Novavax jab available comes after the UK played a significant part in its development: government-funding helped support clinical trials and 15,000 British volunteers participated in the testing.was placed by UK ministers, with a deal agreed for it to be manufactured at a Fujifilm plant in Billingham, Teesside.