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Economical and easy to store. These are some of the characteristics of the long-awaited vaccine AstraZeneca / Oxford, approved this Wednesday by the British drug agency (MHRA) and which has five essential features.
(Read here: What is known about the first case with the new strain of covid in the US?)
Why is it easier to distribute and cost less?
AstraZeneca / Oxford has the advantage of being affordable (it costs about 3 euros per dose). At the same time, it is easy to store: it can be kept at the temperature of a refrigerator, between two and eight degrees Celsius., unlike Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines, which can only be stored long-term at very low temperatures (-20 ° C in the first case, and -70 ° C in the second). This facilitates a large-scale vaccination.
It is easy to store: it can be kept at the temperature of a refrigerator, between two and eight degrees centigrade
Does it fight the new variant of the coronavirus?
According to AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, the vaccine is capable of fighting the new variant of the coronavirus, responsible for a re-outbreak of cases in the United Kingdom. “For now, we think it should be effective” against this mutation, Soriot told the Sunday Times.
(Read here: British variant of covid-19 has already been detected in South America)
“But we can’t be sure, so we will do trials.” He also assured that new versions will be prepared just in case, but that they hope not to need them: “You have to be prepared.”
Who developed it?
It was produced by the British group AstraZeneca together with the University of Oxford. It is the second vaccine approved by the MHRA, after the one from Pfizer / BioNTech distributed in the UK since 8 December and administered to more than 600,000 people.
The United Kingdom, one of the countries in Europe most affected by the pandemic with more than 71,000 deaths, ordered 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine, of which 40 million will be available between now and the end of March. Vaccination should begin on January 4.
AstraZeneca says it will be able to manufacture 3 billion doses of its vaccine for the entire world in 2021.
(Also read: Fauci acknowledges that the pandemic ‘is out of control’ in the US)
It was produced by the British group AstraZeneca together with the University of Oxford.
How was it developed?
The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is “viral vector”: It is based on another virus (a chimpanzee adenovirus) that has been transformed and adapted to fight the coronavirus. It is the first vaccine whose efficacy results have been validated by a scientific journal. According to data published by The Lancet on December 8, this vaccine “is safe.”
Side effects of the virus are extremely rare at this stage. Of the 23,754 volunteers who took part in the trials, only one of the vaccinated patients suffered a “serious side effect that is probably related” to this injection, according to data published by the journal. It was a case of transverse myelitis (a rare neurological disorder) that had led to the temporary interruption of the test in early September.
Of the 23,754 volunteers who took part in the trials, only one of the vaccinated patients suffered a ‘serious side effect that is probably related’ to this injection
What is known about its effectiveness?
In the partial results of clinical trials, the British laboratory had announced in November that its vaccine was on average 70% effective, while those of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna were over 90%. The efficacy of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine is 90% for volunteers who initially received a half dose and a month later a full dose.a, but only 62% for another group that was vaccinated with two full doses administered one month apart.
(In other news: The United States will require negative test to travelers from the United Kingdom)
The half-dose injection was due to an error and only a small group had followed the second protocol, which generated criticism and concern and led the company to announce on November 26 that an “additional study” was conducted to verify its results . “We believe we have found the successful formula and the way to achieve an efficiency that, with two doses, is as high as the others”, Soriot assured the Sunday Times on Sunday.
AFP
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