London. /
The British Pharmaceutical Group AstraZeneca claimed to have found, after further investigation, “the winning formula” for his vaccine against covid-19 developed with the Oxford university, about which the UK regulator is due to comment in the coming days.
“We believe we have found the winning formula and how to achieve efficacy that is as high as the other with two doses,” said CEO Pascal Soriot in the Sunday Times, adding that his vaccine has a “100% protection” against severe forms of Covid-19.
In the interim results of large-scale clinical trials in the UK and Brazil, The British lab announced in November that its vaccine had an average effectiveness of 70% compared to more than 90% of that of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.
Behind this average result there are major differences between two different protocols: efficacy is 90% for volunteers who first received half the dose, then a full dose a month later, but only 62% for another group vaccinated with two full doses.
These results were criticized for having an error in the half dose injection, although a relatively small group had followed this protocol. The company later announced that its vaccine requires “further investigation.”
The vacuna Oxford / AstraZeneca is eagerly awaited because it is relatively cheap and does not need to be kept as cold Pfizer / BioNTech, for example, it should be kept at -70 degrees.
This facilitates vaccination on a large scale and in retirement homes.
The UK was the first Western country to start injecting doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in early December. You now have this second vaccine Oxford / AstraZeneca gain momentum and stop the increase in the number of cases attributed to its territory by the new variant of the coronavirus.
Faced with this mutation, “we currently believe the vaccine should remain effective,” said Pascal Soriot. “But we’re not sure, so we’ll do some testing.”
He assured that new versions were being prepared just in case, hoping they won’t need them: “You have to be prepared.”
The UK government said on Wednesday that it had submitted full data for the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine to the UK regulator, the MHRA. According to the British press, the latter will have to speak out in the coming days with the aim inject it from January 4th.
The fact is, you don’t have to worry.
The fact is, you don’t have to worry.