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Reported in the last part of last month, but data published in full in The Lancet Medical Journal on Thursday suggests that people over the age of 70, who are at high risk of serious illness and death from Civil-19, may develop stronger immunity.
“The strong antibody and T-cell response found in the elderly in our study is encouraging,” said Maheshi Ramasmi, a consultant and co-lead investigator at our XFV vaccine group.
“We hope this means that our vaccine will help protect some of the most vulnerable people in society, but we will need further research before we can be sure.”
Final phase, or phase III, trials are underway to confirm these findings, the researchers said, to test whether the vaccine protects against SARS-Cove-2 infection, including those with an underlying health condition.
The results of these tests should definitely be known by Christmas, said Rew Andrew Pollard, director of the Trixford Vaccine Group, adding that it was too early to know how the vaccine COVID-19 works to prevent disease and how well it works.
“We have not addressed the issue yet. “Obviously we won’t run it,” he told BBC Radio. “We’re getting closer, and it will happen before Christmas, depending on the progress.”
The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine candidate, called AZD1222 or CAADOX1NCOV-19, is one of the leading runners in the global effort to develop shots to protect against infection with the novel coronavirus or SARS-Cov-2.
But rival drugmakers Pfizer Inc., Bioentech and Moderna Inc. have come out on top in the last 10 days, showing more than 90 percent efficacy from late-stage COVID-19 vaccine tests.
Unlike Pfizer-Bioentech and Moderna Shot, which both use a new technology called messenger RNA (mRNA), AstraZeneca is a viral vector vaccine made from a weaker version of the common cold virus found in chimpanzees.
The Phase II trial, reported in the Lancet, involved a total of 560 healthy volunteers, including 160 aged 18-55, 160 aged 56-69, and 240 aged 70 or over.
Volunteers received two doses of the vaccine or placebo, and no serious side effects related to the AZD1222 vaccine were reported, the researchers said.
AstraZeneca has signed several supply and manufacturing deals with companies and governments around the world.
Reported by Kate Calland; Additional reporting by Alistair Smoot; Edited by Matthew Lewis and Alexander Smith
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