Corovirus vaccine Covishield was developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford (File)
New Delhi:
The Oxford vaccine against coronavirus will ‘protect 95 per cent of patients’ and is ‘just as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna alternatives’, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told The Sunday Times. to get efficiency up there with everyone “.
However, AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant, has not yet released information confirming these allegations. Interim results from Phase III trials released last month showed an efficacy rate of 70 percent above the average of two dosing regimens. One of these treatments – half a dose followed by a full dose – showed 90 percent efficacy, while Pfizer’s data showed 95 percent and Moderna 94.5 percent.
Mr Soriot also said the vaccine, which is likely to be purified by the UK health regulator this week, ‘should be effective against an aggressive mutant strain of the virus first detected in London and southern England in September.
The Oxford vaccine, which will be manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute in India, is one of the three medicines to be considered by the Indian government for emergency use. The other two are those developed by Pfizer (which has already been rolled out in the UK, the US and several European countries) and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
On Saturday, sources told the news agency PTI that the DCGI (Drug Control General of India) was waiting for the British drug regulator to clear the vaccine from Oxford.
As Pfizer has yet to submit its data and Bharat Biotech has not yet completed Phase III trials, the sources are likely that the drug AstraZeneca-Oxford will become the first Covid vaccine used in India. It also scores at least two critical points over its competitors – convenient storage and cost.
Although the Pfizer vaccine should be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius and the Moderna variant at minus 20 degrees Celsius, the Oxford vaccine can be kept at normal refrigerator temperatures – two to eight degrees Celsius. The difference can be crucial for a country as large as India.
The Oxford vaccine is also expected to be cheaper than the Pfizer and Moderna options; it will likely cost $ 2.5 per dose for Pfizer’s $ 20 and Moderna $ 25. All three require a two-dose treatment.
The Indian government has begun preparations for a nationwide deployment of whatever vaccine will be cleared first. During Monday and Tuesday, four states – Punjab, Gujarat, Assam and Andhra Pradesh – are taking part in the trials of the vaccination process.
India expects to start vaccinating in any week in January, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the union’s health minister, said. As of Sunday morning, the country had reported 2.79 active Covid cases. The total number of cases since the pandemic started in December last year is about 1.02 million.
With input from PTI