A vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has maintained the highly transmissible variant first detected in the UK and, according to new data, comparable to other strains.
Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and principal investigator of the Oxford vaccine trial, had earlier told an advisory panel for the variant. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The new findings, published Thursday before a careful peer review in “Preliminary Prints with The Lancet,” compare the vaccine’s effectiveness among other strains.
“Data from our trials with the ChAdOx1 vaccine in the UK indicate that the vaccine not only protects against the original pandemic virus, but also protects against the new variant, B.1.1.7, which from the end of 2020 the “Increases in disease across the UK,” Pollard said in a statement on Friday.
ASTRAZENECA-OXFORD COVID-19 VACCINE DROPS VIRUS TRANSMISSION COURSE, MAINTENANCE PROTECTION: STUDY
Researchers said the vaccine offers similar protection against symptomatic diseases against the B.1.1.7 strain, about 75%, compared to its efficacy against previous strains at 84%, although induced antibodies were nine times lower than the B.1.1.7 . pressure. Findings emerged from more than 1500 nose / throat swabs taken from 499 trial participants in a phase I / II study between 1 October and 14 January.
“The efficacy of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 versus the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2 is similar to the efficacy of the vaccine against other sexes,” the study reads. “Furthermore, vaccination with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 leads to a reduction in the duration of shedding and viral load, which can lead to a significant impact on the transmission of diseases.”
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British scientists have estimated that the B.1.1.7. Coronavirus strain can spread 50 to 70% more easily from person to person, and there is some data to suggest that the variant is more lethal.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has already been approved for use in the UK, and more than 10 million doses of vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech have been administered across the UK, according to separate data released on Friday.
The UK’s medicine regulator also announced on Friday that additional monitoring of coronavirus vaccines confirms their safety and efficacy. According to the Regulatory Agency (Medicines and Healthcare Products) (MHRA), there were a number of suspected side effects of 3 per 1000 doses administered from 9 December to 24 January.
“This reassuring data has shown that the vast majority of the side effects reported are mild and that they are all consistent with most types of vaccines, including the seasonal flu vaccine,” the MHRA said in a statement.
The news follows other recent preliminary findings that the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine not only reduced the transmission of viruses by two-thirds, but also improved hospitalization rates and prevented serious diseases. Researchers have also found that the distribution of the two doses increased the protection against the virus.