UK regulators are expected to approve AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine within a few days.
The UK medicines and healthcare products regulator could release the drug on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The medicine man has touted the vaccine, developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, as cheaper and easier to store than Pfizer’s. According to the paper, its adoption could significantly strengthen the British government’s goal of having mass vaccinations for the most vulnerable populations by early spring.
“The Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is the vaccine at the moment that can immunize the planet more effectively and faster than any other vaccine we have,” Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet medical journal, told CNBC. earlier this month.
Horton added that ending the pandemic requires global distribution of vaccines, “because even if we immunize one country, there is a threat of reintroducing the virus from another unprotected country.”
AstraZeneca’s initial research data was criticized in November, with the Trump administration chief of Operation Warp Speed noting that the drugmaker showed 90 percent efficacy only for subjects under the age of 55, a lower-risk demographic.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot later said further research data points to broader efficacy.
“We think we came up with the winning formula and how to get efficacy that will be present in everyone after two doses,” he told the Times of London this month. “I can’t tell you more because we will publish at some point.”
The UK will view the vaccine as a more contagious variant of the virus discovered in the country and elsewhere. Pfizer has expressed confidence that its vaccine will be effective against the new strain. Soriot said he believes AstraZeneca’s vaccine will also be effective, but said the company is testing to be on the safe side.