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Tens of millions of British-made Covid-19 vaccines could be deployed in December, it has been claimed.
The leader of the Oxford University and AstraZeneca-backed trial, Professor Andrew Pollard, says the team is “optimistic” about getting the go-ahead for the “miracle” vaccine by Christmas.
The academic says his anti-viral would be ten times cheaper than Pfizer’s product, which requires two injections several weeks apart and must be stored at -78 ° C.
He told the Sun that his vaccine is stored at “refrigerator temperature” and that it is very close to showing “efficacy,” which Pfizer tested in its own version on Monday.
Professor Pollard said: “We have worked tirelessly all year and we look forward to seeing the results in the months to come.
‘We are a small academic team at Oxford. It is a miracle that we have been able to carry out large-scale trials at record speed.
“Our partner AZ will deliver the vaccine on a non-profit basis.”
It comes after the government said another 462 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Saturday.
As of 9 a.m. Saturday, another 26,860 laboratory-confirmed coronavirus cases had been recorded in the UK, slightly down from 27,301 on Friday.
And British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline has raised hopes that another Covid vaccine will be available early next year after revealing that it has already manufactured ‘millions of doses’.
Roger Connor, its president of global vaccines, told The Mail on Sunday that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had launched mass production and was now ready to move to the final stage of testing.
“We are already entering the millions of manufactured doses,” he added. “ We have all the resources and we are moving; in fact, we were celebrating the commissioning of our facility in Belgium the week before.
British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline has raised hopes that another Covid vaccine will be available early next year after revealing that it has already manufactured ‘millions of doses’. In the photo: Headquarters in West London
People wearing face coverings queue for a coronavirus test in a Liverpool center
“You can imagine the sense of pride that the people who work on it generate. They are completely excited because they know they are going to make a difference. ‘
It comes after US giant Pfizer revealed last week that its Covid vaccine is 90% effective and could be available before Christmas.
GSK has committed to producing 1 billion doses of its jab next year and has previously said that it was targeting safety approval in the ‘first half of 2021’.
However, news of the increase in manufacturing and the progression of trials will raise hopes that the company can get approval even earlier, opening up the possibility that its vaccine will be available in the spring.
Healthcare providers will be able to source products from manufacturers such as BioNTech / Pfizer and Astrazeneca / Oxford to sell to customers, but such orders will be placed at the end of the queue, according to government sources.
GSK has pledged to produce 1 billion doses of its jab next year (stock image) and has previously said it was targeting safety approval in the ‘first half of 2021’
Results from trials by British giant AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which are working together on a vaccine, could arrive this week or next. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna of the United States are also believed to be closing in on the announcements.
GSK is working on three international agreements to develop an effective injection, all of which are ready to move to the final stages of testing.
GSK is producing a so-called adjuvant, an ingredient that is used to create a strong immune response, that will combine with antigens produced by French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, Medicago of Canada and Clover Biopharmaceuticals of China, to create a vaccine. The vaccine is manufactured in locations in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, and the United States.
The GSK-Medicago trial of a herbal vaccine is moving into its final stages, with 30,000 volunteers in North America, Latin America and possibly Europe included in the trials.
The vaccine being produced by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (pictured, facility in Puurs, Belgium) and Germany’s BioNTech is based on newer technology than that used by GSK.
Connor said testing for the GSK-Clover connection will begin “in a couple of weeks” and that the GSK-Sanofi partnership could move to massive human testing “in the next few weeks” after receiving encouraging results. He added: “We are seeking approval for our vaccines in the first half of 2021 – the world will need them.”
The vaccine being produced by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech is based on newer technology than that used by GSK.
As a result, the Pfizer vaccine will need to be stored below minus 70 ° C. The vaccines being developed by GSK, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson can be stored at normal refrigerator temperature.
But news of the potential breakthrough comes as a leading expert warned that a limited supply of the raw ingredients needed for Covid vaccines, like those from Pfizer, risks leaving much of the world’s population unprotected.
Andrey Zarur, CEO of GreenLight Biosciences, said that because the strokes are based on new technology, the suppliers of the materials needed to make them do not yet have the capacity to produce the large quantities required.
“The supply chain is not mature enough. They have been around for laboratory-scale processes, which need nanograms, but they have to go from the nanogram scale to the kilogram scale, ‘he added.
