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A potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford produced a strong immune response in older adults, raising hope that it may protect some of those most vulnerable to the disease, data showed of trials in intermediate stage.
The data, reported in part last month but published in full in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday, suggests that people over the age of 70, who are at increased risk of severe illness and death from Covid-19, could develop a strong immunity to pandemic disease. the researchers said.
“The robust antibody and T-cell responses seen in older people in our study are encouraging,” said Maheshi Ramasamy, consultant and co-principal investigator for the Oxford Vaccine Group.
Populations most at risk of severe Covid-19 disease include people with existing health problems and older adults. We hope this means that our vaccine will help protect some of the most vulnerable people in society, but more research will be needed before we are sure. “
Late-stage or Phase III trials are underway to confirm the findings, the researchers said, and to test whether the vaccine protects against SARS-CoV-2 infection in a wide range of people, including people with underlying health conditions. .
The first efficacy data from those phase III trials are “possible in the next few weeks,” the Lancet report said.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine candidate, named AZD1222 or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, had been among the pioneers in global efforts to develop vaccines to protect against infection with the novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2.
Rival drug makers Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna have moved forward in recent weeks, publishing data from late-stage Covid-19 vaccine trials showing efficacy of more than 94 percent.
Unlike Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna injections, which use a new technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA), AstraZeneca’s experimental injection is a viral vector vaccine made from a weakened version of a common cold virus that it is found in chimpanzees.
The phase II trial published in The Lancet involved a total of 560 healthy volunteers, with 160 aged 18 to 55, 160 aged 56 to 69 and 240 aged 70 and over.
The volunteers received two doses of the vaccine or a placebo, and no serious side effects from the vaccine were reported, the researchers said.
AstraZeneca has signed various supply and manufacturing agreements with companies and governments around the world as it gets closer to reporting the results of its late stage trials. – Reuters
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