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It was not clear why, in one of these vaccination regimens, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford chose to administer one and a half doses. The protocol published by the two entities on the British National Health Service’s page dedicated to clinical trials describes that the phase three clinical trial consisted of the administration of two AZD1222 vaccines four weeks apart. each with a dose of 5 × 1010 viral particles. That is, it was not part of the initial plans that one of the doses was lower.
Only this Wednesday, two days after AstraZeneca leader Mene Pangalos told Reuters that the administration of just half a dose was a mistake, did he officially admit what was behind this change in plans: after all, there was a production error and therefore some of the bottles used in the clinical trial did not have the correct concentration of viral particles.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mene Pangalos confirmed the news and went even further: the mistake had been a “serendipity”, a useful and pleasant opportunity. And it was only detected when the AstraZeneca researchers noticed that some of the volunteers were not developing as expressive an immune response as other participants. That’s when they contacted the vaccine subcontractor and the manufacturing error was detected. However, for whatever reason, the volunteers with the weakest immune response seemed more protected from SARS-CoV-2 than the rest. Why? Let’s go.
The truth is that, as soon as the error was made public, the question arose of the risk of representing a delay in the approval and availability of the vaccine. For now, it is not possible to be sure that this will happen. AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford received the green light from regulators to continue the trial, as it is doing, with dose differences, which will deal with much more data on the difference in results. Only at the end will it be possible to see if the vaccine is, in fact, effective and if it can be approved.
To guarantee this, the pharmaceutical company announced on Thursday that it has yet to do “an additional study” on a global scale. For Bloomberg, the executive director of AstraZeneca assured that this new step should not mean a longer approval process by the European authorities.
There are many accidental discoveries in the history of science that have already led to real revolutions for society. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, a drug currently used to treat bacterial infections, by chance, in 1928: the doctor wanted to discover a remedy that would prevent the proliferation of bacteria in the wounds of soldiers, so he created a culture of Staphylococcus aureus. But he left it abandoned when he went on vacation, causing the box to grow mold.
When Fleming returned to the lab, he noticed that there were no signs of bacteria around the mold. The fungus that made the mold Marked penicillium, had secreted a product that prevented the activity of the bacteria – Penicillin, which was first applied to a human being in 1941. It was a policeman named Agent Albert Alexander, 43, who will have developed septicemia. I like? Some speak of an injury when pruning roses and there are those who indicate that Sheriff Alexander was injured during a bomb attack.
Since, in the experience developed among the 2,741 people who received a lower dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the University of Oxford, the effectiveness was considerably higher than in the group that received the full dose, it is possible that the error led to moment eureka against Covid-19? Henrique Veiga Fernandes, researcher in immunology at the Champalimaud Foundation, considered that, “For the age groups who inadvertently received these lower doses, no doubt.” because they are “very expressive numbers”. Errors like this “are not very normal”, but “we are going to have ups and downs, this process is made of that”.
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