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Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine must get approval before Christmas so it can be used by doctors and seniors BEFORE final testing is complete, says the professor leading the project.
- Adrian Hill said that the emergency vaccine will be available by the end of the year.
- The Oxford professor believes that the general population will receive it in early 2021.
- Two phases of clinical trials have established that the Oxford vaccine is safe
Doctors and high-risk patients are likely to receive the Covid-19 vaccine from Oxford before the end of the year, said the professor leading the project.
Adrian Hill said the emergency approval would allow those most in need to receive the jab while final testing is still ongoing.
Full authorization would then follow, meaning that the rest of the population could receive the vaccine from early 2021.
Adrian Hill (pictured), the professor who runs Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine program, said patients could get the vaccine before the end of the year.
Professor Hill, founder and director of the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, admitted that the time was tight to start vaccines before Christmas, but insisted that it was possible.
“Billions of doses” are already being produced in ten factories around the world by a consortium led by British pharmaceutical firms AstraZeneca, he said.
In an optimistic assessment of how the vaccination program could unfold, he said: ‘I would be very surprised if this [the pandemic] it’s not very clear on its way to the end of spring, at least in this country … we will reach the stage where there will be herd immunity through vaccination. ‘
Two phases of successful clinical trials have established that the Oxford vaccine is safe and triggers a strong immune response.
Phase three trials are now in an advanced stage.
Two phases of successful clinical trials have established that the Oxford vaccine is safe and triggers a strong immune response
The Jenner Institute is conducting trials at nine sites in Britain with the participation of 10,000 volunteers, with others in Brazil and South Africa. Its partners in India and the US are conducting further trials.
The next critical stage in the process will be the “unmasking” of the trial results, which will see the data of the participants who received the jab compared to the placebo group.
Until then, neither the participants nor the researchers running the trials themselves will know who received the vaccine or the placebo, a process known as “double blind.” Professor Hill suggested that unmasking is now imminent, but health regulators in different countries have different requirements before authorizing vaccines.
The researchers plan to seek emergency approval for vulnerable patients based on interim results while conducting further trials to provide stronger evidence. “The initial license would be for emergency use, not for full approval,” said Professor Hill.
Already ‘billions of doses’ are being produced in ten factories around the world by a consortium led by British pharmaceutical firms AstraZeneca
“They will want to see more data on safety and perhaps efficacy before giving a license to vaccinate everyone. In this country, our priorities are pretty clear … we’re going to vaccinate the high-risk people before vaccinating the young, the fit and healthy who are at lower risk. I think most countries will.
“So what we’re looking for this year is an ’emergency use’ authorization that will allow us to go and vaccinate those most at risk as a priority, and then early next year everyone else.” Doctors and other key workers could also receive the vaccine under an interim license, he added.
The professor said Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has already been ‘fantastic’, adding: ‘That’s why we say this is one of the best countries in the world to conduct clinical trials – we have a good regulator. informed and sensible who makes decisions based on a risk-based analysis, rather than a set of dogmatic rules ”.
He said he would “be very surprised if they don’t move very fast” when the interim results are released. Professor Hill suggested that data based on just 20 cases of Covid could produce statistically significant evidence that the vaccine is effective, but this may not be enough to eliminate the jab in some countries.
The US Food and Drug Administration, for example, insists on 150 infected participants before accepting the trial’s findings.
Additionally, the US trials have yet to restart after they were halted last month when a patient developed a neurological condition for reasons unrelated to the vaccine. As a result, trials in Great Britain were also stopped, but quickly resumed.
Speaking online with members and alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford, Professor Hill said: “ Much of the reason drug trials typically take so long is that academics had to spend months writing reports and seeking funding. between its stages. In this case, money has not been a problem.
He suggested that the Oxford vaccine, given with two injections four weeks apart, would likely provide strong protection against Covid-19 because it leads to both antibodies and T-cell immunity. The latter means that the body’s white blood cells are prepared to destroy any tissue that becomes infected.
