The UK regulators are expected to approve the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in a few days.
The UK Medicines and Medicines Regulatory Agency could remove the drug as early as Tuesday, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The pharmacist claimed the vaccine, developed by scientists at Oxford University, to be cheaper and easier to store than Pfizer. Its authorization could significantly strengthen the British government’s goal of mass inoculation of the most vulnerable segments of the population by early spring, according to the newspaper.
“The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is now the vaccine that will be able to immunize the planet more effectively, faster than any other vaccine we have,” Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, told CNBC. earlier this month.
Horton added that ending the pandemic will require the worldwide distribution of vaccines, “because even if we immunize a country, then the threat is that you will reintroduce the virus from another country that is not protected.”
The initial data from the AstraZeneca study were criticized in November by the head of the Trump administration, Operation Warp Speed, noting that the drug manufacturer showed 90% effectiveness only for subjects under the age of 55, a lower-risk demographic.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot later said that additional data from the studies indicate greater effectiveness.
“We think we’ve discovered the winning formula and how to get the effectiveness that, after two doses, is there with everyone else,” he told the Times of London this month. “I can’t tell you more because we’ll publish at some point.”
The United Kingdom will consider the vaccine to be a more infectious variant of the virus detected in the country and elsewhere. Pfizer has expressed confidence that its vaccine will be effective against the new strain. Soriot said he believes the AstraZeneca vaccine will also be effective, but said the company is conducting tests to be sure.