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AstraZeneca “Amazing” Vaccine: Low Dose Works Better Than High Dose
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Preparations for mass vaccinations are in full swing
With the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, another company has presented positive data on a corona vaccine relevant to Europe. Thousands of people should be vaccinated every day in late December, but no later than early next year.
With the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, another company has presented positive data on a corona vaccine relevant to Europe. The effectiveness is lower than that of the competition, but one detail surprises the study directors.
METERThe British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has presented another company with positive data on a corona vaccine. The vaccine prevents an average 70 percent chance of contracting Covid-19, the company said based on data from the important phase III trial.
Andrew Pollard of the research team said they were very satisfied with the high efficacy of the candidate vaccine. The number even rose to more than 90 percent if subjects received half a dose and then a full dose instead of two full doses.
Efficacy is based on interim results from clinical studies in the UK and Brazil. When an initial half dose and a full one were administered a month later, the effectiveness was 90 percent; however, with two full doses, only 62 percent. If you combine these values, you get about 70 percent, according to AstraZeneca. Those who received the vaccine in the study did not have a single course of severe disease after infection. Out of 11,636 test subjects, 131 tested positive for Covid-19 during the study.
Pollard called the study results “staggering.” With a view to the result that the vaccine offers greater protection at a lower dose, more work is needed, Pollard told the BBC on Monday. “I think this is a really exciting and puzzling result that we need to look at further.” AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot said the lower dose was a huge benefit as it would allow more people to get vaccinated faster.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the announcement that the vaccine could be as effective as 90 percent as “fantastic” news. “Incredibly exciting news that studies have shown the Oxford vaccine to be so effective,” Johnson said. Twitter. “More security checks need to be done, but these are fantastic results.”
According to preliminary data, the effectiveness of the Pfizer / Biontech and Moderna vaccines is around 95 percent for the dual vaccines. The AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored according to the information at refrigerator temperatures of two to eight degrees.
The EU has ordered 300 million cans
The active ingredient AstraZeneca, developed jointly with the University of Oxford, has long been one of the most promising candidates: the EU had already ordered up to 300 million doses in advance. In total, several countries have already ordered billions of cans from AstraZeneca.
The active ingredient AZD1222 is based on the weakened version of a chimpanzee cold virus. It contains genetic material for a surface protein with which the pathogen Sars-CoV-2 attaches to human cells. The agent works in two ways: it is supposed to promote the formation of specific antibodies and T cells; both are important for the immune system. Unlike the vaccines of the Mainz company Biontech and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, as well as the American company Moderna, the British-Swedish preparation does not belong to mRNA vaccines.
Oxford researchers recently reported in the trade journal “The Lancet” that their vaccine was also effective in the elderly in phase II clinical trials. In the phase II study, participants both younger and older than 56 had good immune responses, the team wrote. The vaccine was even better tolerated by the elderly than the very young. According to the information, about 240 of the 560 healthy study participants were over 70 years old. Older people are at higher risk of a severe course of Covid-19.
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