Staff at a major London hospital have been told to be ready to receive the first batches of the vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca Plc, The Sun newspaper reported Monday.
The Sun said the hospital was told to prepare for the vaccine beginning the “week beginning November 2.”
The COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc produces a robust immune response in older people, the Financial Times said on Monday, citing the first results.
A vaccine that works is seen as a game changer in the battle against the new coronavirus, which has killed more than 1.15 million people, hit the global economy and shut down normal life around the world.
The Oxford vaccine triggers protective antibodies and T cells in older age groups, FT said, citing two people familiar with the finding.
Immunogenicity blood tests performed on a subset of older participants echo data published in July that showed the vaccine elicited “robust immune responses” in a group of healthy adults ages 18 to 55, the newspaper reported.
Details of the finding are expected to be published shortly in a clinical journal, the FT said. He did not name the publication.
The FT cautioned that positive immunogenicity tests do not guarantee that the vaccine will ultimately prove safe and effective in older people.
AstraZeneca, which is developing the vaccine with researchers at the University of Oxford, is considered a pioneer in the race to produce a vaccine to protect against COVID-19.
OXFORD VACCINE
The vaccine is expected to be one of the first of the Big Pharma to gain regulatory approval, alongside the candidate from Pfizer and BioNTech.
The vaccine is likely to provide protection for about a year, Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in June.
Called AZD1222 or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, the vaccine was developed by scientists at the University of Oxford and licensed to AstraZeneca in April, which took on the task of scaling up trials and production.
The British drugmaker has signed several supply and manufacturing agreements with companies and governments around the world as it approaches to report the first results of an advanced stage clinical trial.
AstraZeneca resumed the US trial of the experimental vaccine after approval by US regulators, the company said Friday.
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