The dose of Oxford University / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is displayed out of its box at Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, UK, January 2, 2021.
Gareth Fuller | Reuters
Pharmacist AstraZeneca is struggling to adapt its Covid-19 vaccine to new variants of the virus, making the process more urgent after a small-scale study found it was less effective in protecting against the more virulent strain found in South Africa. .
The country said it would suspend the use of the shot in its vaccination program after a study, published on Sunday and not yet evaluated by colleagues, found that the vaccine offered “minimal protection” against mild to moderate disease caused by the southern variant. African.
Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand and others in South Africa and the University of Oxford noted that the study was small, involving only about 2,000 volunteers who had an average age of 31 years. Oxford University said that “protection against moderate-severe illness, hospitalization or death could not be assessed in this study because the target population had such a low risk. “
Vaccine manufacturers have already started developing second-generation Covid vaccines targeting new variants of the virus, and experts say it shouldn’t be too difficult to modify existing vaccines to cover mutations and they could be adapted in just six weeks.
Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford University who developed the vaccine with AstraZeneca, commented on Sunday that “efforts are underway to develop a new generation of vaccines that will allow protection to be redirected to emerging variants, such as recalls. as a reminder, if it proves necessary to do so. “
“We are working with AstraZeneca to optimize the pipeline needed for a strain change if it becomes necessary. This is the same problem that all vaccine developers face and we will continue to monitor the emergence of new variants in preparation. stem change. “
The variant, formally known as the B.1.351 mutation, was first detected in South Africa in October 2020 and has since become dominant in the country.
Several cases have been found elsewhere, sending health authorities struggling to stop the spread of the mutation, which has been shown to be more infectious. There have already been concerns that this variant may be more resistant to coronavirus vaccines developed in the last year.
As it has suspended the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University jab, the South African government will instead offer vaccines produced by Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.
In late January, Johnson & Johnson reported that its single-dose shot was 57% effective in one of its clinical trials in South Africa, where almost all cases of Covid-19 (95%) were due to infection with the variant of B. 1,351 offspring. For comparison, the vaccine was 72% effective in the US arm of the study.
Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have reported early indications that their vaccinations provide protection against new known variants of the virus, those found in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
On Friday, Oxford University released details of a separate study showing that its vaccine is effective against a variant of the virus that was first discovered in the south-east of England and has now become the dominant strain in the UK.
Andrew Pollard, professor of pediatric infection and immunity and chief investigator of the Oxford vaccine study, said data from his UK vaccine studies “indicate that the vaccine not only protects against the original pandemic virus, but also protects against the novel variant, B .1.1.7, which caused the disease to increase from the end of 2020 in the United Kingdom. “