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LONDON: The potential COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford produced a strong immune response in older adults, data released Thursday (November 19) showed, and researchers hope to publish the trial results in the latest stage for Christmas.
The data, reported in part last month but published in its entirety 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 solid immunity.
“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.
“We hope this means that our vaccine helps protect some of the most vulnerable people in society, but more research will be needed before we can be sure.”
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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 results of those trials should definitely be known by Christmas, said Oxford Vaccine Group director Andrew Pollard, adding that it was too early to know if the vaccine works to prevent COVID-19 disease and how well it works.
“We are not there yet. Obviously we are not going to rush,” he told BBC radio. “We are getting closer, and it will definitely be before Christmas, depending on the progress.”
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.
But rival drug makers Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna have moved forward in the past 10 days, publishing data from late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trials showing more than 90 percent efficacy.
Unlike Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna injections, which use a new technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA), AstraZeneca’s is a viral vector vaccine made from a weakened version of a common cold virus found in chimpanzees.
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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 the remaining 240 aged 70 and over.
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Volunteers received two doses of the vaccine or a placebo, and no serious side effects related to the AZD1222 vaccine were reported, the researchers said.
AstraZeneca has signed various supply and manufacturing agreements with companies and governments around the world.
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