London. /
British Pharmaceutical Group AstraZeneca claimed to have found, after further investigation, “winning formula” for his covid-19 vaccine developed with Oxford University, which the UK regulator is due to comment on in the coming days.
“We believe we have found the winning formula and how we can achieve an efficacy that, with two doses, is as high as the others,” CEO Pascal Soriot told the Sunday Times, adding that his vaccine provided a “100% protection” against severe forms of covid-19.
In the intermediate results of large-scale clinical trials in Great Britain and Brazil, The British laboratory announced in November that its vaccine had an average efficacy of 70%, compared to more than 90% of those Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.
Behind this average result are big differences between two different protocols: efficacy is 90% for volunteers who first received half the dose, then a full dose a month later, but only 62% for another vaccinated group with two full doses.
These results were criticized because there was an error in the half-dose injection, although a relatively small group followed this protocol. The company later announced that its vaccine required “further studies”.
Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is eagerly awaited as it is relatively inexpensive and should not be stored as cold as Pfizer / BioNTech, for example, it should be kept at -70 degrees.
This facilitates widespread vaccination in geriatric homes as well
The UK was the first Western country to start injecting doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in early December. Now you have this second vaccine Oxford / AstraZeneca to gain momentum and put an end to the increase in cases attributed to its territory by the new variant of coronavirus.
Faced with this mutation, “we believe for the moment that the vaccine should continue to be effective,” said Pascal Soriot. “But we can’t be sure, so we’re going to do some tests.”
He assured that the new versions were prepared for any eventuality, hoping that they would not need them: – You have to be prepared.
The British government said on Wednesday it had forwarded full data on the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine to the UK regulator, MHRA. According to the British press, the latter will have to make a statement in the coming days, in order to inject it from January 4th.
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