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LONDON – The British government announced on Friday that it had asked its Medicines Regulatory Authority to evaluate the emerging coronavirus vaccine, which is being developed by the British Laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, in preparation for its market launch.
The United Kingdom, the country most affected by the pandemic in Europe with more than 57,000 deaths from the virus, is also “the first country in the world to sign a contract with AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, guaranteeing access to one hundred million doses” according to the Ministry of Health in a precedent reflecting London’s aspiration to become among the first countries to carry out large-scale vaccination using a locally manufactured and approved vaccine amid an “economic emergency”.
“We have formally requested the Medicines Regulatory Authority to evaluate the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine and determine if it meets strict safety standards,” Health Minister Matt Hancock said in a statement. He added that, if approved, it would be “an important step to launch a vaccine as soon as possible.”
If the vaccine is approved, 4 million doses will be delivered to the UK before the end of the year, followed by another 40 million doses before the end of March 2021.
And the president of AstraZeneca announced Thursday that more research is needed on the vaccine the company is developing to fight Covid-19, after questions were raised about the protection it could provide.
Based on preliminary results from large-scale clinical trials in the UK and Brazil, the British laboratory announced on Monday that its vaccine was 70% effective on average.
However, behind this average result there are large differences between two different protocols: an efficacy rate of 90% for volunteers who received a half dose the first time and then a full dose a month later, and only 62% for the second. group that received two full doses of the vaccine one month apart.
While the administration of half the dose was originally in error, which explains why it was administered to only 3,000 patients, the results seem to show that this first regimen leads to a better immune response.
The company was criticized for the size of this group and also because the result was due to a mistake.
