AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said on Sunday that the British pharmaceutical company’s vaccine is believed to be effective against the new coronavirus strain detected in the UK.
“Up to now we think the vaccine should remain effective. But we’re not sure, so we’re going to test that, ”said Soriot when asked how the vaccine could hold up against the new strain of the virus.
The Associated Press reports that Soriot told the Sunday Times that AstraZeneca researchers had discovered a “winning formula” to make the formula just as effective as Pfizer’s or Moderna’s, both of which have already been approved. The AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be approved this week, the AP notes.
“We think we came up with the winning formula and how to get efficacy that, after two doses, is present in everyone else,” Soriot said.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in conjunction with the University of Oxford, was not initially considered as effective as its US counterparts, with partial results suggesting that it is 70 percent effective at preventing disease, the AP reports.
This new strain of the virus has raised alarm around the world, with many countries restricting or banning travel from the UK. The variant is believed to be significantly more contagious than the pre-existing coronavirus strain, although it was not thought to be more deadly or more serious in symptoms.
Moderna said last week it also believed the vaccine could effectively protect people from the new strain.
An important difference in the AstraZeneca vaccine is that, unlike the Modern and Pfizer vaccines, it is not an mRNA vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these vaccines teach the immune system to make certain proteins that then trigger an immune response without introducing the actual virus into the body..
AstraZeneca’s vaccine uses a weakened version of the virus itself to teach the immune system how to fight it off.
The UK was the first Western country to approve a coronavirus vaccine, giving Pfizer vaccination approval in early December. As of Dec. 24, more than 600,000 were vaccinated in the UK, the AP reports.