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A 16-year-old participates in Pfizer’s clinical trial to test its candidate for a coronavirus vaccine.
- The Covid-19 vaccine from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures for at least six months.
- Unlike the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, therefore, it does not require an ultra-cold transport and storage system, making it cheaper to distribute globally.
- The price per dose is also much cheaper than Pfizer’s or Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, in part because AstraZeneca has pledged not to benefit from the vaccine during the pandemic.
- AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford said Monday that his vaccine was 70% effective.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
The Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, which they say is 70% effective, overcomes some of the challenges associated with launching the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, making it cheaper and potentially easier to distribute globally. manufacturers say.
Unlike the Pfizer and BioNTech candidate, the Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine does not have to be stored or transported at ultra-low temperatures. This could be especially beneficial for developing nations.
AstraZeneca has also pledged not to benefit from the vaccine during the pandemic. It loads considerably less for the doses than the other two main vaccine candidates.
“The vaccine’s simple supply chain and our non-profit promise and commitment to broad, equitable and timely access means it will be affordable and available globally, supplying hundreds of millions of doses with approval,” AstraZeneca said at a Press release.
The Oxford and AstraZeneca candidate is known as an adenovirus vector platform – it provides people with an inactivated virus to stimulate an immune response. This makes it more stable than Pfizer and Moderna’s “mRNA-based” vaccines, which inject people with genetic material that makes their bodies part of the virus, triggering an immune response.
This stability means that it can be stored, transported and handled at normal refrigerator temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius for at least six months.
Once it reaches its destination, it can be “managed within existing healthcare settings,” AstraZeneca said, rather than requiring an investment in expensive ultra-cold storage equipment.
Pfizer’s vaccine requires a complex “cold chain” transportation system. The vaccine has to be transported at -70 degrees Fahrenheit through a system of deep-frozen airport warehouses and refrigerated vehicles, using dry ice and GPS temperature monitoring devices.
Once it reaches a healthcare facility, it must still be stored in extremely cold temperatures. Even some of America’s most reputable hospitals, like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, lack adequate facilities to store the vaccine, leading to a scramble for hyper-cold freezers. Manufacturers anticipate backorders of months and delays for products.
Moderna’s vaccine can be transported and stored at refrigerator temperature, but only for one month – the Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine can last six months at these temperatures. In order for Moderna’s vaccine to last that long, it must be stored at minus 15.5 degrees.
The companies behind the vaccine are also charging less for doses.
AstraZeneca has pledged not to benefit from the vaccine in the course of the pandemic. It is charging between R45 and R76 per dose and will be sold at cost to developing countries in perpetuity.
EU countries have been offered doses for each R45, The Telegraph reported.
In contrast, Pfizer charged R298.57 per dose for the first 100 million doses, said its partner BioNTech. He added that the price changes according to the size of the order. Each person requires two doses of the vaccine, at a cost of R597 per person.
Meanwhile, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told Welt am Sonntag that the company will charge R382 to R566 per dose, depending on the size of the order, which he called “a fair price.”
The last potential advantage of the Oxford vaccine comes from the manufacturing. The results of the trial suggest that the jab has an average effectiveness of 70%, but was 90% effective in a regimen containing half a dose, followed by a full dose, the results showed. In the trial, this was more effective than two full doses.
This means that more people can potentially vaccinate groups than expected, although more research is required.
Professor Andrew Pollard, the trial’s principal investigator, said Monday that the half-dose finding was “intriguing” and would mean “we would have many more doses to distribute.”
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