Ox Xford’s Covid-19 vaccine can do more for the world than any other shot

AstraZeneca has promised to give millions of doses to low- and middle-income countries and to deliver vaccines to those nations on a permanently profitable basis. The vaccine developed at Oxford University in England is significantly cheaper than others and, decisively, will be easier to transport and distribute to developing countries than its competitors because it does not need to be stored in cooling temperatures.

“I think it’s the only vaccine that can be used in those settings at the moment,” Ezra Gani, president of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London, told CNN.

Technology

“Pfizer and Modernna require freezer storage, and it’s not in place in many settings,” Gani said.

“Cold chain” refrigeration is the standard collection used to deliver vaccines from central locations to local health clinics globally. The AstraZeneca vaccine is so far the only one that can be delivered to those systems with certainty, Guinea added.

These vaccines are based on different technologies. AstraZeneca’s offering fur – such as Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and Russia’s Sputnik V. – Adenovirus is used to carry genetic fragments of coronavirus into the body.

The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use pieces of a genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA) to stimulate the body to make artificial fragments of coronavirus and stimulate the immune response. “This is a relatively new technology and little is known about the stability of mRNA over time,” Penny Ward, chairman of the Education and Standards Committee of the UK’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, told CNN.

She said as Moderna and Pfizer Increasing information and production capacity, they will be able to find storage methods at higher temperatures, but the Ox Xford vaccine is likely to be able to be shipped worldwide more easily “using existing supply chains”.

It will be valuable only if the level of effectiveness of the vaccine is maintained, when it is distributed in developing countries.

Monsef Sloy, chief adviser to the U.S. government’s Operation Operations Speed, said this week that “there are a lot of variables we need to understand” around the dose and age difference in Oxford / AstraZeneca results. Needs to be improved.

On Thursday, a spokesman for AstraZeneca told CNN that they are currently in the U.S. Discussions with the FDA about including a half-power quantum method in trials, which currently have about 10,000 participants.

Eifer Ali, an associate professor of international business at the Warwick Business School, said the “ease of delivery” of the AstraZeneca vaccine “could potentially build for the lower potential effectiveness.”

“The actual efficacy of the mRNA vaccine, which is more fragile to transport and store, may be low in real-world situations where it may be difficult to verify the correct storage of each dose,” he added.

Bioentech said last week that it is working with Pfizer to bring a formulation that could store its vaccine at standard temperatures in the second half of 2021. This month Moderna raised its estimate for how long its vaccine can stay stable in refrigerator temperature for an estimated seven to 30 days. According to Juan Res Ndres, Moderna’s Chief Technical rations Operations and Quality Officer, this will facilitate easier distribution and greater flexibility in facilitating widespread vaccination in the United States and other parts of the world. ”

Promise to help

AstraZeneca has pledged 300 million doses of its vaccine to CoAX, a partnership between the vaccine affiliate, GAVI; World Health Organization; And Alliance for Grand Alliance Preparatory Innovations (CEPI) to ensure equal distribution in 92 developing countries. The only other well-known vaccine developer who has pledged on a similar scale is Sanofi at 200 million doses.

A GAVI representative told CNN that the Serum Institute of India (SII) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would also provide 200 million doses of the vaccine to AstraZeneca and / or Novavax candidates in low-income countries. Moderna and Pfizer have not pledged any dose to CX.

“[AstraZeneca has] Work has been done with production specialists in that connection to help different sources from different production sites, and of course not only the vaccine, but also the glass vials that go on top of the bottles and the syringes “and needles,” Ward said.

“Our vaccine can be quickly incorporated into existing health settings, which will help prevent further spread of the disease while we learn more and more about how to prevent and treat it,” a spokesman for Oxford University told CNN. He added that different types of vaccines will be needed and some may be more effective for different ages and populations.

“The key to any vaccine is the potential to have an impact on public health, including how quickly it can be distributed. Using our current logistics, it can be quickly and easily distributed around the world, and stored in refrigerators,” he said.

Global effects

However, Guinea warned that 20% “close to the norm – nowhere – about 70% – that we want to see animal husbandry be able to achieve immunity, so some countries will still fall short.”

The Duke’s mingling shows that as rich countries buy billions of doses in advance to increase the likelihood of covering their populations, the developing world will depend entirely on coxsacks.

Bill Gates said the measure “does not embarrass rich countries that do the natural job of wanting to protect their people,” but was intended to increase production capacity.

Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacopidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned that monitoring effectiveness and safety issues would be a continuing challenge in the developing world.

He told CNN, “There may be some adverse effects that will only be evident in those low- and middle-income countries; their diets are different, they generally have different levels of nutrition, and different characteristics,” he told CNN.

While the Oxford vaccine may make a special promise at this stage to help low-income countries, there are still a number of data warnings that need to be addressed before they can be implemented.

Ultimately, it will be important to have as many vaccines as possible to ensure a speedy recovery and limit further damage to the world.