London, Nov 23: Pharma major AstraZeneca said on Monday that an interim analysis of clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine in the UK and Brazil showed that it was 70 per cent effective on average, becoming the third drugmaker to announce promising results to contain the deadly virus.
The vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, showed 90 per cent efficacy in one dosing regimen when the vaccine was given as a half dose, followed by a full dose at least a month later, and another dosing regimen showed 62 per cent efficacy when given as two full doses at least one month apart, AstraZeneca said in a statement.
“The combined analysis from both dosing regimens resulted in an average efficacy of 70 per cent,” it added.
An independent Data Safety Monitoring Board determined that the analysis met its primary endpoint showing protection from COVID-19 occurring 14 days or more after receiving two doses of the vaccine, AstraZeneca said. No serious safety events related to the vaccine have been confirmed. The ChAdOx1 nCoV-2019 or codenamed AZD1222 was well tolerated across both dosing regimens, it said.
The company “will now immediately prepare the regulatory submission of the data to authorities around the world that have a framework in place for conditional or early approval,” the statement said.
AstraZeneca will seek an Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organisation for an accelerated pathway to vaccine availability in low-income countries, it added.
“These findings show that we have an effective vaccine that will save many lives. Excitingly, we’ve found that one of our dosing regimens may be around 90 per cent effective and if this dosing regimen is used, more people could be vaccinated with planned vaccine supply,” explained Professor Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and Chief Investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial.
The result of the Oxford University vaccine compares with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which were recently shown to be 95 per cent and 94.5 per cent effective, respectively. The Oxford University vaccine is comparatively cheaper and easier to store.
Global COVID-19 cases top 58.5-mn
The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 58.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.38 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
India comes in second place in terms of cases at 9,095,806, while the country’s death toll soared to 133,227. (Agencies)
