By Patrick Wingrove and Bhanvi Satija
(Reuters) -Novavax on Friday said it had struck a licensing deal worth at least $1.2 billion with Sanofi for its COVID-19 vaccine in exchange for a stake that valued the U.S. biotech firm at double its current market capitalization.
The Maryland-based drugmaker's stock more than doubled in Friday trading to $8.97 following the deal as the company also removed a warning notice from February last year that raised doubts about it being in business. At their peak in 2021, shares traded at about $332.
Sanofi will take a 4.9% stake in the U.S. drugmaker for $70 million. That values Novavax at about $1.4 billion, nearly double its market capitalization of about $628 million as of Thursday, but a far cry from its peak of $20 billion in 2021.
The deal also entitles Novavax to an upfront cash payment of $500 million and future payments contingent on certain milestones, as well as royalties.
Sanofi, one of the world's largest vaccine makers, will gain a license to co-sell Novavax's vaccine in most countries and use the COVID shot along with its own flu vaccines to develop a combination shot.
"A company like Sanofi, that has pioneered protein recombinant-based vaccines for decades, validating and actually needing what Novavax has as their next pipeline innovation engine is very powerful," said B. Riley Securities analyst Mayank Mamtani.
For Sanofi, the agreement could help bolster its flu vaccine franchise as companies such as Pfizer and Moderna develop rivals, including combination vaccines to be used along with COVID-19 shots.
The French drugmaker made nearly $7.5 billion in sales from its vaccines last year.
Novavax CEO John Jacobs said during a call with analysts that the company expected the deal with Sanofi to be worth further billions of dollars in the future.
"The majority of what we see as the future value of this deal comes from the anticipated royalties that will be ongoing from Sanofi's ability to sell our COVID vaccine and their own combination vaccine or vaccines," he said.
Jacobs said the company would consider similar deals for its other experimental vaccines, which include a standalone influenza shot.
SHORT SELLERS FEEL PAIN
The cash infusion is likely to strengthen the balance sheet of the vaccine maker, whose shares lost more than 98% of their value since the early days of pandemic as it struggled to get its vaccine to the market in a timely manner.
Novavax has become a target for both short sellers who bet that the value of the stock will fall, and an activist shareholder pushing for changes.
About 35.5% of Novavax's publicly available shares are shorted. Friday's rise is squeezing out short sellers, who are buying back stock to exit their position.
The bearish investors had lost roughly $255 million on paper, according to analytics firm S3 partners.
The deal is "a step in the right direction for shareholders", hedge fund Shah Capital, which has been pushing for a shake-up of Novavax's board, said.
Separately, Novavax cut its 2024 sales forecast, excluding contributions from the Sanofi deal, to between $400 million and $600 million from $800 million to $1 billion previously.
It also reported a net loss that narrowed to $148 million in the first quarter from $294 million a year ago.
(Reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York, Bhanvi Satija, Medha Singh, Shubham Kalia and Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru, and Tassilo Hummel in Paris; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Arun Koyyur)
The pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has reportedly withdrawn its COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria, also known as Covishield, worldwide,citing commercial reasons for the decision.
"As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed, there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied," various media outlets quoted the company was quoted as saying.
A document hosted by the EU's European Medicines Agency website confirmedthatVaxzevriawas no longer authorized in the region.
In an email to DW, virologistWolfgang Preiser said"the demand for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is very low and unlikely to pick up significantly in the foreseeable future, so I understand the reasoning."
AstraZeneca, who developed the vaccine with Oxford University,said it was "incredibly proud of the role Vaxzevria played in ending the global pandemic."
More than three billion doses were supplied globally. Independent studies estimate that more than 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year that itwas used.
The Oxford-AstraZenecavaccine was developed within the first months of the pandemic in 2020. It was first approved in the UK on December 30, 2020, with other countries granting the vaccine conditional marketing authorization later in 2020 due to the urgency of the pandemic.
Vaxzevria was effective against initial ancestral variants of COVID-19 virus the alpha variant but was less effective against newer variants of COVID-19, such as the omicron variant.
Many governments, including in the UK, Germany and Australia, had stopped using the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine before its withdrawal from the market.
"We are still distributing COVID-19 vaccines, but none of them are AstraZeneca any more. They were the first manufacturer with which we concluded our arrangement in 2022,"Olly Cann, director of communications at the international organization Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, told DW.
Along with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovationsandthe World Health Organization, Gavi was involved inCOVAX, a effortto guaranteepeople in every country in the world had fair access to COVID vaccination.
Thelatest COVID-19 vaccine advice issuedby the World Health Organisation in April advised that COVID-19 vaccines should target the JN.1 lineage of the virus, which is now the most dominant variant.
However,at the time of writing,Preiser saidrelatively few severe infections were being observed"due to a high level of population immunity stemming from past vaccination,and often also past infection."
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Although the vaccine was found to be safe and effective overall, it carried a very small risk of developingblood clotsas a side effect. The condition is known as "thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome(TTS)."
The rare syndrome occurred in two to three people per 100,000 who were vaccinated with the Vaxzevria vaccine.
While studies found the vaccine did not increase the risk of heart attacks or strokes, it has been under intense scrutinydue to TTS.
"The side effects are real and may have serious consequences for those affected, but as with all interventions, a careful risk-benefit analysis [was]needed. During the pandemic, the balance was definitely in favor of using the vaccine," saidPreiser, who is based atStellenbosch University in South Africa.
In a UK High Court case, AstraZeneca isbeing sued by more than 50 people, who claim to have been affected by side effects.
The BritishTelegraph newspaper, quoted as the first to break the news of Vaxzevria's withdrawal from the market, reportedthat AstraZeneca had admitted in the court case in February 2024 that the vaccine "can, in very rare cases, cause TTS."
AstraZeneca said the decision to withdraw the vaccine was not linked to the court case or any risks associated withTTS.
Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany
French pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) says that, as part of its commitment to developing a diverse portfolio of best-in-class vaccines, it has entered into a co-exclusive licensing agreement with US biotech Novavax (Nasdaq: NVAX).
Shares of Novavax were up a 127.3% at $10.03 in pre-market trading this morning.
Sanofi is one of the worlds top producers of flu vaccines with sales of 2.7 billion euros ($2.9 billion) last year, but its early
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Whooping cough
Government adviser says low take-up of jab among pregnant women is putting young infants at particular risk
Fri 10 May 2024 07.42 EDT
More babies will die from whooping cough in the UK unless vaccination rates go up to slow the spread of the infection, a leading expert has warned, citing low take-up of jabs among pregnant women as a particular concern.
Prof Sir Andrew Pollard, a consultant paediatrician and the chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises the government, said under-vaccination was putting the most vulnerable those who are too young to have been vaccinated at greatest risk.
He said the only thing that could be done about rising cases was to ensure higher vaccination rates.
He added: But very importantly, for this very vulnerable group, those who are too young to be vaccinated, is the vaccination rates in pregnant women.
Very worryingly, those have fallen from a peak of about 75% of women being vaccinated during pregnancy to under 60% today, and thats what puts these very young infants at particular risk.
He said for most of the last decade there had not been many cases of whooping cough because were all protected by the high vaccination rates, but as soon as vaccination rates started to fall, we see cases rising, the same as the situation with the measles outbreak.
He said: The troubling thing is that if we continue to have high rates of spread and low rates of vaccination, there will be more babies severely affected and sadly there will be more deaths.
Figures for England show 59.3% of pregnant women between October and December 2023 were vaccinated against whooping cough, almost 16% down on the same quarter in 2016-17. London has particularly low rates, at 36.8%.
Having the vaccine in pregnancy helps bridge the immunity gap from when babies are born until they themselves can be vaccinated.
Data for 2022-23 shows 91.8% of children had had their whooping cough vaccines by their first birthday, with experts saying this figure also needs to be higher.
Figures released on Thursday showed five babies in England died between January and the end of March after being diagnosed with whooping cough.
More than 2,700 whooping cough cases have been reported across England so far in 2024, more than three times the number recorded in the whole of last year.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) figures show there were 2,793 cases reported to the end of March. That compares with 858 cases for the whole of 2023.
Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, a consultant epidemiologist for the UKHSA, said: Whooping cough can affect people of all ages, but for very young babies it can be extremely serious. Our thoughts and condolences are with those families who have so tragically lost their baby.
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10 May 2024
Image source, Getty Images
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, head of the UK's vaccine committee, said the youngest were at greatest risk and more pregnant women should be vaccinated.
If the disease continues to spread, more babies will die, he warned.
The whooping cough vaccine is offered to babies and pre-school children.
The "only thing we can actually do" about rising cases of whooping cough is to ensure higher vaccination rates, Prof Pollard told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"Very important - for this very vulnerable group, those who are too young to be vaccinated - is the vaccination rate in pregnant women," he added.
"Worryingly, those have fallen from a peak of about 75% of women being vaccinated during pregnancy to under 60% today, and that's what puts these very young infants at particular risk."
London has particularly low vaccination rates of 36.8%.
UK health officials say there have been 1,319 cases of whooping cough in England in March, up from 900 in February, giving a total of nearly 2,800 so far this year.
The bacterial infection, which can develop into prolonged bouts of coughing, is a cyclical disease, with peaks seen every three to five years.
The last peak year came in 2016, when there were nearly 6,000 cases in England.
Half of cases seen so far this year have been in the under-15s, with the highest rates in babies under three months, who are most at risk. The five babies who died this year - the first deaths since 2019 - were all under three months old.
"The troubling thing is that if we continue to have high rates of spread and low rates of vaccination, there will be more babies severely affected, and sadly there will be more deaths," Prof Pollard said.
A steady decline in uptake of the vaccine and the very low number of infections seen during the pandemic, were both factors in the rise in cases, the UK Health Security Agency said.
This also happened with other infections, because restrictions on socialising during the pandemic meant that diseases which normally spread widely were stopped in their tracks, and a peak year was therefore overdue.
In September 2023, the number of two-year-olds who completed their routine six-in-one vaccinations, which includes protection against pertussis, was 92.9%, down from 96.3% in March 2014.
Uptake of the maternal pertussis vaccine, which is offered during every pregnancy and provides some protection to babies in the first few months of life, has also dropped.
The first signs are similar to a cold, with a runny nose and sore throat.
After about a week, the infection can develop into coughing bouts that last a few minutes and are typically worse at night.
Young babies may make a distinctive "whoop" or have difficulty breathing after a bout of coughing.
The bacterial infection spreads through coughs and sneezes.
People of all ages can catch whooping cough, but it is most serious for young children and babies.
Health experts are urging those not vaccinated to come forward to get the jab.
The whooping cough vaccine is routinely given as part of the:
If you are pregnant, you should also have the whooping cough vaccine - ideally between 16 and 32 weeks.
Children who have not been vaccinated can still get the jab up to the age of 10. Vaccination offers enough protection that, if the child is infected, the illness will be mild.
Prof Kamila Hawthorne, who chairs the Royal College of GPs, said it was "highly concerning" that such a high number of whooping cough cases had been confirmed.
She said whooping cough was an uncomfortable experience for most patients, causing restless nights and shortness of breath - but for some it could be "far more serious".
Dr David Elliman, consultant in community child health at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, said: "While the vaccines against whooping cough are not 100% protective, they enormously reduce the chances of babies dying.
"Parents should ensure that their babies are immunised on time, but as importantly, that they get the vaccine when pregnant."
He also said the rise in cases of this infection, as well as of measles, should be "a wake-up call to the NHS", adding: "For too long, successive governments have paid lip service to the importance of preventative healthcare. It is now time that appropriate resources are provided to back up the rhetoric."
Novavax stock more than doubled after signing a $1.2 billion licensing agreement with French drugmaker Sanofi to co-commercialize its combination COVID and influenza vaccine.
Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Novavax has signed a $1.2 billion licensing agreement with French drugmaker Sanofi to co-commercialize its combination COVID and influenza vaccine.
Novavax stock more than doubled after the announcement.
It puts Novavax on solid footing, after restructurings last year that led to massive job cuts and cost reductions that cut its operating expenses in half last year.
Under terms of the Sanofi agreement, Sanofi also receives a license to commercialize Novavaxs current stand-alone, protein-based COVID vaccine.
Today we announce the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Novavax with the launch of a strategically important partnership with one of the worlds leading vaccine companies. We believe the combined strength of Novavax and Sanofi will enable us to better fulfill our mission of developing and improving access to life-saving vaccines, said John C. Jacobs, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax.
Novavax will receive an upfront payment of $500 million, and another $700 million if certain development and launch milestones are met. It will also receive royalties on vaccine sales. Sanofi is taking a 5% stake in Novavax as part of the agreement.
The Novavax combination COVID and influenza vaccine is currently in late-stage clinical trials, and could receive regulatory approval as early as 2026.
The Novavax COVID vaccine differs from those made by Pfizer and Moderna, whose vaccines use mRNA technology. However, it was late to market with its vaccine during the early days of the pandemic, with FDA approval slow to come. The FDA gave emergency use authorization to its vaccine in July of 2022, almost a full year after Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were approved.
Novavax promotes its protein-based COVID vaccine as a viable alternative for those who dont want the mRNA versions. It is also more shelf-stable.
Novavax reported a first quarter net loss of $148 million, compared to a net loss of $294 million in the same quarter a year earlier. The companys first quarter revenue was $94 million ,compared to $81 million a year earlier. The company also severely reduced its research and development expenses, to $93 million last quarter, compared to $247 million in the first quarter of 2023.
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An mRNA vaccine triggered the immune system to target brain tumours, a small study showed.
A promising human clinical trial on four patients may pave the way for a new treatment of glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Researchers from the University of Florida in the US developed an mRNA cancer vaccine which triggers the immune system to target the tumour.
Approximately 19,000 individuals in the EU are believed to be affected by this condition annually.
The approach to treating glioblastoma has seen little evolution since the early 2000s, primarily relying on chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgical interventions. The average survival duration for patients diagnosed with this condition is about 15 months.
The team published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Cell earlier this month. The vaccine uses the immune system to fight cancers that are difficult to treat.
It employs a version of mRNA technology similar to what's used in COVID-19 vaccines but with a couple of tweaks.
For one, the vaccine uses cells from the patient's own tumour to create a personalised treatment.
Additionally, it includes a newly developed delivery system to generate a rapid immune response.
"Instead of us injecting single particles, were injecting clusters of particles that are wrapping around each other like onions, like a bag full of onions," senior author Elias Sayour, said in a statement.
"And the reason weve done that in the context of cancer is these clusters alert the immune system in a much more profound way than single particles would," he added.
Scientists took genetic material called RNA from each patient's surgically removed tumour.
They then amplified the messenger RNA (mRNA), which contains instructions for what's inside every cell, including tumour cells.
Next, they wrapped this mRNA in special lipid nanoparticles creating a high-tech package. When these modified tumour cells were injected back into the patients' bloodstream, they looked like viruses, triggering an immune system response.
"In less than 48 hours, we could see these tumours shifting from what we refer to as 'cold' - immune cold, very few immune cells, very silenced immune response - to 'hot,' very active immune response," Sayour said.
That was very surprising given how quick this happened, and what that told us is we were able to activate the early part of the immune system very rapidly against these cancers, and thats critical to unlock the later effects of the immune response.
The study is the result of encouraging findings from seven years of research that began with experiments in preclinical mouse models and progressed to a clinical trial involving ten pet dogs with advanced brain cancer.
Dogs can also develop spontaneous brain tumours that result in terminal outcomes, the researchers said.
The ten pet dogs lived a median of 139 days, while the median survival of dogs with this condition is 30 to 60 days.
Professor Duane Mitchell, co-author of the paper, said that these results were "a really important finding because oftentimes we dont know how well the preclinical studies in animals are going to translate into similar responses in patients".
"And while mRNA vaccines and therapeutics are certainly a hot topic since the COVID pandemic, this is a novel and unique way of delivering the mRNA to generate these really significant and rapid immune responses that were seeing across animals and humans".
A Phase 1 clinical trial will now test the vaccine in up to 24 adult and paediatric patients to confirm the findings.
Further research is needed to find the best method to trigger the immune system while limiting potential side effects.
Trust in science, vaccines, health experts and authorities is declining, causing preventable infections like measles to become much more common.
In Sweden, until the late 1960s, people drove on the left. But on September 3, 1967, the road rules changed. En masse, Swedes switched to driving on the right. If even a small percentage of drivers had rebelled and were still rebelling, Sweden today would be a synonym for chaos and death. Instead, Sweden might as well mean safety. It has the lowest driving death rate of any country in the European Union.
Why the success? Everyone trusted everyone else to make the switch. Of course, it was never likely to fail. Nigeria made a similarly smooth change in 1972 as did Samoa in 2009. With or without a switch, wherever in the world people drive, they usually do so on the basis of trust in, and respect for, road rules and other drivers following them.
What road rules are to crashes, vaccines and broader preventive healthcare are to illnesses and diseases. When trust in the former wanes, theres a lot more of the latter. And in many places, when it comes to health, thats exactly whats happening. Trust in science, vaccines, health experts and authorities is declining. So preventable infections are becoming more common.
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Last month, the organisation I lead made a payout from our International Federation of the Red Cross Disaster Response Emergency Fund (IFRC-DREF) to the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most often, we use that fund to help national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies in the immediate aftermath of floods, droughts or mass population movements. This time the fund was used to help Bosnia deal with a measles outbreak caused by falling levels of vaccination. The rate of vaccination across the country is now below 60 percent, with parents increasingly reluctant to vaccinate their children. Since January there have been almost 3,000 cases about three-quarters of unvaccinated children under nine. The Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina will spend much of its allocated funds on mobile information units, travelling through affected areas to persuade people of the merits of getting a jab.
As one Red Cross colleague leading the response says, people are afraid of vaccinations: There is lots of misinformation. Young parents, especially, are choosing not to vaccinate their children.
The Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina will work closely with communities to build trust. Lecturing wont work; real community engagement and accountability should. Red Cross members will listen carefully to peoples opinions and will collaboratively design ways to build acceptance of why vaccines are so important. Building and sustaining trust within communities wont happen overnight, but its essential. Communities play a key role in preventing and controlling epidemics. They need to be involved in co-designing solutions from the start and being involved throughout.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina is far from alone in this. Kyrgyzstans measles outbreak began at the end of last year. The Red Crescent Society there is leading the campaign to debunk misinformation and discourage vaccine hesitancy; theyre aiming to reach 120,000 people. Over recent months, other national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have been supporting vaccination campaigns in The Philippines, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Guinea.
In fact, almost everywhere in the world, measles cases are up. Across 41 countries in Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a 40-fold increase in 2023 compared with 2022. They called that an alarming rise. I call that an understatement. There are pockets of measles popping up across the United States where case numbers are at their highest in years. Overall, worldwide there was almost a doubling in cases, year on year between 2022 and 2023. So far, the numbers for 2024 are on track to be worse.
Trust is far from the only issue at play, and often not the biggest. Supply chains can be unreliable, with health facilities often out of stock or without staff able to vaccinate. Some people cant get to places where there are medical supplies available or cant get to them when immunisations are being offered.
But even where and when they can, they all too frequently do not.
So why the hesitancy about vaccines and suspicion of wider preventive healthcare precautions? In part, its a reluctance to trust healthcare professionals in the wake of misinformation that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was in East Africa earlier this year where dreadful cholera outbreaks spread across many countries. Certainly as I saw in Zambia early detection of new cases is crucial, as is disinfection and establishing reliable sources of clean water. But building back trust matters, too. Neighbours of people infected with cholera are sceptical that their houses need to be disinfected as well as those of people with the disease. In Comoros where they are experiencing their first cholera outbreak in 17 years, people report being suspicious of the disinfectant sprays healthcare professionals use. IFRC-DREF grants have been made to four countries dealing with cholera since the start of the year, with a more extensive emergency appeal in place for Zimbabwe. Collaboratively building trust is at the heart of the work the money pays for.
In the 1960s, the terms mis- and disinformation were still decades away. There was no TikTok or WhatsApp to supercharge rumours.
Nowadays its not enough to have a solution to a problem; we have to engage communities and work with them to create trust in that solution. That is at the core of the work of the Red Cross and Red Crescent network.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
Ten days after AstraZeneca admitted side effects of its Covid vaccine in rare cases, the company has withdrawn the shots, renamed Vaxzveria in 2021, from the global market. It has cited a surplus of available updated vaccines that target new variants of the virus as the reason for its decision. The vaccine majors moves have generated negative sentiments bordering on panic, including among some people in India where AstraZeneca partnered with the Serum Institute of India to develop Covishield the bulwark of the countrys fight against Covid. Such responses might not be surprising given that social media is the prime source of information for a sizable section and the means to distinguish science from pseudoscience are not always at hand. But knee-jerk reactions from other quarters have also not helped. Especially unfortunate are the politically loaded comments about Covishield during the Lok Sabha election campaigns.
The emergency created by an unknown contagion required due procedures including clinical trials and schedules to be compressed. But the crisis also galvanised scientists, medical experts and policymakers to push the frontiers of their disciplines and domains. Vaccine hesitancy tested the persuasion skills of local officials and healthcare workers. Its a testimony to such initiatives that social and economic activities return to normalcy about two years after the virus unleashed its virulence. Vaccination ensured that the contagion took on a significantly less aggressive form after the lethal second wave in the summer of 2021 when the bulk of the countrys population had not received the shots. Hospitalisation and fatality rates remained low even during periods of spike in infection after the second wave.
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Covid inoculation drives are now subjects of intensive research. Thats how it should be. These studies help generate nuanced information about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, that could not have been generated with the volunteer size of the trials. Scientists can today draw on databases that comprise inoculated people across nations and continents. Besides helping epidemiologists understand how the jabs work on diverse sections of people, and reaffirming the potency of the shots, such studies shine the light on rare adverse reactions, including thrombosis and thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) blood clots and low levels of platelets associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. Such research will help vaccine developers refine their methods. Technologies used in the Covid jabs whether the viral vector of AstraZeneca or the mRNA technique of some other developers are part of a larger battle against infectious diseases. Alarmist reactions against the Covid jabs could raise the head of vaccine hesitancy and hurt the fight against other contagions.
The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 10-05-2024 at 08:05 IST
9 May 2024
Image source, Getty Images
Five babies have died from whooping cough as cases continue to rise in England, health officials have announced.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reported 1,319 cases in England in March, after just over 900 in February, making the 2024 total nearly 2,800.
It fears this year could see lots of the bacterial infection. The last peak year, 2016, had 5,949 cases in England.
The infection can be particularly serious for babies and infants.
Half of cases seen so far this year have been in the under-15s, with the highest rates in babies under three months of age.
The five babies who died this year were all under three months old. These are the first deaths since 2019.
Other parts of the UK and Europe are also seeing a rising number of cases.
Known as pertussis or "100-day cough", the infection is a cyclical disease with peaks seen every three to five years.
UKHSA has said a steady decline in uptake of the vaccine and the very low numbers seen during the pandemic, as happened with other infections because of restrictions and public behaviour, were both factors in the rise in cases.
The agency said a peak year was therefore overdue.
In September 2023, the number of two-year-olds who completed their routine six-in-one vaccinations, which includes protection against pertussis, was 92.9%, compared with 96.3% in March 2014.
Uptake of the maternal pertussis vaccine, offered to women in every pregnancy, also dropped - from more than 70% in September 2017 to about 58% in September 2023.
Getting vaccinated while pregnant provides some protection to babies in the first months of life.
The first signs are similar to a cold, with a runny nose and sore throat.
After about a week, the infection can develop into coughing bouts that last a few minutes and are typically worse at night.
Young babies may make a distinctive "whoop" or have difficulty breathing after a bout of coughing.
The bacterial infections spreads through coughs and sneezes.
People of all ages can catch whooping cough, but it is most serious for young children and babies.
Health experts are urging those not vaccinated to come forward to get the jab.
Children who have not been vaccinated can still get the jab up to the age of 10.
Vaccination does not provide lifelong immunity against the disease, but subsequent infections tend to be mild.
Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, from UKHSA, said: "Vaccination remains the best defence against whooping cough and it is vital that pregnant women and young infants receive their vaccines at the right time.
"Whooping cough can affect people of all ages, but for very young babies it can be extremely serious.
"Our thoughts and condolences are with those families who have so tragically lost their baby."
Prof Kamila Hawthorne, who chairs the Royal College of GPs, said: "It's highly concerning that such a high number of whooping cough cases have been confirmed.
"While whooping cough will be an unpleasant and uncomfortable experience for most patients, causing restless nights and leaving those affected with a shortness of breath, for some, it can be far more serious."
