British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced on Monday that its Coronavirus vaccine has shown 70% efficiency in protecting against the virus.AstraZeneca is working with the University of Oxford to develop the vaccine and it was assessed over two different dosing regimens.
The news came after Pfizer and Moderna also revealed encouraging vaccine trial results in recent weeks showing that their vaccines are 95% effective against the virus.People are hopeful that the COVID vaccine will bring an end to the pandemic.
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One procedure showed 90% effectiveness during trials in which the participants received a half dose, and received a full dose after a month. while others showed 62% efficacy when two full doses were given at least one month apart which bring the average effectiveness to 70%. There was no severe reaction or disease were reported in people taking vaccine trials. In Interim analysis, a total of 131 COVID-19 cases were assessed.
The chief investigator of the Oxford Vaccine TrialAndrew Pollard said that the results prove that we have an effective vaccine that will save many lives.
The vaccine trial was done on 23,000 volunteers in the U.K. and Brazil with more data from other countries will be collected soon. The additional data from other countries can change the results, such as average effectiveness.
CEO of AstraZenecaPascal Soriot said that the development is an important milestone in the fight against Coronavirus, as the results confirm that it will be highly effective against COVID-19.
The company said that it is preparing regulatory submissions of the data to health authorities around the world on an urgent basis to get the conditional early approval.
There are huge distribution challenges because pharmaceutical companies are battling to secure the logistics of mass production of the vaccine.
The executive vice president of AstraZeneca’s biopharmaceuticals business unitRuud Dobber said that the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has an advantage that it can be used on a refrigerator temperature which is beneficial for the low income and middle-income countries.
The company claims that its vaccine can be stored transported and handled at normal refrigerated conditions (36-46 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least six months and no special arrangements are required, unlike the Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine which required special arrangements and temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit temperature is required. The company has pledged to distribute the vaccine at no profit for the duration of the pandemic.
