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The Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine does not appear to offer protection against mild and moderate illness caused by the viral variant first identified in South Africa, according to a study to be published Monday.
Although none of the more than 2,000 patients in the study died or were hospitalized, the findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, could complicate the race to implement vaccines as new strains emerge.
In both human trials and tests on vaccinated blood, jab showed significantly reduced efficacy against the 501Y.V2 viral variant, which is dominant in South Africa, according to the randomized, double-blind study seen by the Financial Times .
“A two-dose regimen of [the vaccine] showed no protection against mild-moderate Covid-19 due to [the South African variant]”The study says, adding that efficacy against severe Covid-19, hospitalizations and deaths has yet to be determined.
The so-called Kent variant, which the University of Oxford said on Friday was as susceptible to the vaccine as older variants of the virus, has now acquired the E484K mutation, which is present in variants that fuel the Covid-19 surges. in Brazil and South Africa. .
There are caveats in the study, as the sample sizes were relatively small. The study, led by the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Oxford in South Africa, enrolled 2,026 HIV-negative people, with a mean age of 31. Half of the group received at least one dose of placebo, and the other half received at least one dose of vaccine.
Tulio de Oliveira, who heads the Genomic Surveillance Network in South Africa, told the Financial Times that the findings were a “wake-up call to control the virus and increase the response to Covid-19 in the world.”
Health authorities around the world hope that vaccines will reduce or completely eliminate the burden of hospitalization, thus easing blockages.
While important, it is relatively less urgent to avoid a symptomatic but milder infection that does not progress to hospitalization.
Any setback to the effectiveness of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine would be particularly crucial for the developing world, as partners are producing billions of doses for nonprofits during the pandemic.
The vaccine still appears to be completely effective in preventing hospitalization and death from other variants of the coronavirus, based on data from other studies.
AstraZeneca declined to comment and referred questions to Oxford. Oxford declined to comment on the results of the study, saying only that it was working with partners around the world, including in South Africa, to evaluate the effects of the new variants on the first generation of its Covid vaccine.
“Oxford is working with AstraZeneca to optimize the tubing required for a stress change if necessary,” the university said. “This is the same problem that all vaccine developers face, and we will continue to monitor the emergence of new variants that emerge in preparation for a future strain switch.”
The University of the Witwatersrand did not respond to requests for comment. The South African Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While all the Covid-19 vaccines so far have largely held up against the B.1.1.7 variant that emerged in the UK, the strain that originated in South Africa has been more of a concern. Both Johnson & Johnson and Novavax have said their vaccines were less effective against the strain in clinical trials conducted in South Africa. In trials, both vaccines offered complete protection against serious illness and death in relation to Covid-19.
Moderna has said it will test a booster vaccine and a reformulated vaccine to target the South African variant, after studies showed its vaccine was significantly less effective.
BioNTech / Pfizer said its vaccine was slightly less effective in a laboratory study that used a pseudovirus with some mutations of the 501Y.V2 variant, but they have not released the results of tests against the variant itself.
The 501Y.V2 variant, dominant in South Africa, has recently been discovered in countries around the world, including the US and the UK.
South Africa last week received 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the first Covid-19 vaccines to reach the country, as part of an order for 1.5 million doses from the Serum Institute of India.
