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The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca produced fewer side effects in people 56 and older than in younger people. Image: Justin Tallis / AFP
One of the main candidates for the COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to safely produce a robust immune response in healthy older adults, its British manufacturers said on Thursday when they published the results of its phase 2 trial.
The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, produced fewer side effects in people 56 and older than in younger people, a significant finding given that COVID-19 disproportionately causes serious illness among older people.
Manufacturers said the vaccine was undergoing larger and more comprehensive phase 3 trials to confirm the results.
Immune responses to vaccines tend to decline as people age, as the immune system gradually slows down with age.
This leaves older adults more vulnerable to infection from a variety of diseases.
“As a result, it is crucial that COVID-19 vaccines are tested in this group which is also a priority group for immunization,” Andre Pollard, Oxford professor and lead author of the study results, published in The Lancet.
The phase 2 trial saw 560 participants, 240 of whom were over 70 years old, divided into groups that received one or two doses of the vaccine or a placebo.
Immune responses were assessed on the day of vaccination, and then several more times over the next several weeks.
The responses were “similar” across all age groups, the researchers said.
“Research shows that an immune response was elicited in all age groups, including the cohort of participants older than 70 years,” said Michael Head, principal investigator in Global Health at the University of Southampton, who was not involved in the trial. .
“Given that the elderly populations will be one of the priority groups to receive a vaccine when one becomes available, this is good news.”
The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is one of 48 that are undergoing human trials against COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.
This month, Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna announced the results of the Phase 3 trials, which are much larger than Phase 2 and typically include tens of thousands of subjects, which suggested that both candidate vaccines were effective in preventing COVID-19. NVG
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