A small shopping basket filled with vials labeled “COVID-19 – Coronavirus Vaccine” and medical sryinges are placed on an AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken on November 29, 2020. (REUTERS / Dado Ruvic / Illustration)
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is currently under evaluation by Britain’s independent drug regulator, provides “100 percent protection” against severe Covid disease requiring hospitalization, Pascal Soriot said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper.
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- Last update: December 27, 2020 4:30 PM IST
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The vaccine developed by British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has achieved a “winning formula” of efficacy, the company’s chief executive said on Sunday. The vaccine, which is currently under evaluation by Britain’s independent drug regulator, provides “100 percent protection” against severe Covid disease that requires hospitalization, Pascal Soriot said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper.
He added that he believes the trials will show that his company has achieved vaccine efficacy equal to that of Pfizer-BioNTech by 95 percent and Moderna by 94.5 percent. “We believe that we have discovered the winning formula and how to obtain an efficacy that, after two doses, is on par with all the others,” said the CEO, explaining that the data would be released at “some point”.
The UK government announced on December 23 that the developers of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine had submitted their data to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for approval for a mass launch. Approval is expected to be granted on Monday, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first coronavirus shot to be licensed for use by the UK’s independent drugs regulator and has been delivered to hundreds of thousands of the country’s most vulnerable people since its launch last month. The jab developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is expected to meet most of Britain’s vaccine requirements, as the government has ordered 100 million doses.
Previous trials have shown variable results in the efficacy of AstraZeneca injection. Initially, the vaccine showed an average effectiveness of 70 percent, but that level jumped to 90 percent depending on the dose. Soriot said he was “surprised” by the initial findings. “We would have preferred a simpler result set,” he added.
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