After many speculations about the efficacy of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, the British drug group claimed that they have achieved a “winning formula” for improving the coronavirus vaccine’s efficacy. According to the company’s chief executive Pascal Soriot, the coronvirus vaccine, currently being evaluated by Britain’s independent medicines regulator provides ‘100 percent protection’ against severe covid disease requiring hospitalisation.
He said he believes trials will show his firm has achieved a vaccine efficacy similar to Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
Earlier, several reports suggested that AstraZeneca vaccine may not be as good as the one made by Pfizer, already being distributed in the UK and other countries. Partial results suggest that the AstraZeneca shot is about 70 percent effective for preventing illness from coronavirus infection, compares to the 95% efficacy reported by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
“We think we have figured out the winning formula and how to get efficacy that, after two doses, is up there with everybody else,” the chief executive said, while saying only that data would be published at “some point”.
The United Kingdom government announced on December 23 that the developers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had submitted their data to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Approval is expected to be granted to roll out the jab on January 4.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first coronavirus shot to be authorised for use by the UK’s independent medicines regulator and has been given to 600,000 of the country’s most vulnerable people since last month.
Earlier trials had shown different outcomes in the AstraZeneca shot’s efficacy. The vaccine initially showed an average 70 per cent effectiveness but that level jumped to 90 per cent depending on the dosage.
