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AstraZeneca touts COVID-19 vaccine study results, will seek FDA nod

AstraZeneca announced today that its COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated statistically significant efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in a U.S. trial.

AZD1222, developed in a collaboration between London-based AstraZeneca and Oxford University, was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization, according to a news release. Efficacy was consistent across ethnicity and age, with participants aged 65 and older experiencing an effectiveness of 80%.

The two-dose vaccine is administered at a four-week interval. It can be stored, transported and handled at normal refrigerated conditions (2-8 degrees Celsius or 36-46 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least six months and can be administered without the need for preparation within existing healthcare settings.

Get the full story at our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development.

AstraZeneca touts COVID-19 vaccine study results, will seek FDA nod

AstraZeneca announced today that its COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated statistically significant efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in a U.S. trial.

AZD1222, developed in a collaboration between London-based AstraZeneca and Oxford University, was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization, according to a news release. Efficacy was consistent across ethnicity and age, with participants aged 65 and older experiencing an effectiveness of 80%.

The two-dose vaccine is administered at a four-week interval. It can be stored, transported and handled at normal refrigerated conditions (2-8 degrees Celsius or 36-46 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least six months and can be administered without the need for preparation within existing healthcare settings.

“These findings reconfirm previous results observed in AZD1222 trials across all adult populations but it’s exciting to see similar efficacy results in…

AstraZeneca vaccine offers little protection against South Africa SARS-CoV-2 variant

The ChAdOx1 COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed between AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is not effective against the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa, according to a recent study published in NEJM.

In a five-month study involving HIV-negative adults, 23 of 717 placebo recipients developed mild-to-moderate COVID-19 while 19 of 750 vaccine recipients did. Based on that data, the vaccine has an efficacy of 22% in protecting against mild-to-moderate disease in South Africa more than 14 days after the second dose. Efficacy against the B.1.351 variant specifically was 10.4%.

Last month, South Africa decided to pause its rollout of the vaccine based on the data points, which hadn’t then been peer-reviewed.

The B.1.351 variant has three mutations in the receptor-binding domain portion of the virus, which enhance transmissibility.

The AstraZeneca remains 75% effective against the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the U.…

Blood clot fears prompt Europe to suspend use of AstraZeneca vaccine

Although no causal link has been found between blood clots and the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, several European nations have decided to suspend its use out of an abundance of caution.

Germany, France, Italy, and Spain recently halted the use of the vaccine following reports of blood clots in the brains of vaccinated people.

There have been 37 blood clot reports among more than 17 million doses administered in the EU and the U.K.

The bans are likely to be temporary. The European Medicines Agency has recommended the continued use of the vaccine, stating that the vaccines outweigh the possible risks. The agency will likely offer its interpretation of the blood clot reports this week.

The World Health Organization has also stated that it, to date, has found no links between blood clots and the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was jointed developed with Oxford University.

The incidence of blood clots in AstraZeneca vaccine recipients is in line with…

Health Canada authorizes AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine

[Photo by Praveen Kumar Nandagiri on Unsplash]

Health Canada today announced the authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University — the third vaccine for the novel coronavirus authorized in Canada.

“This is very encouraging news. It means more people vaccinated, and sooner. Because for AstraZeneca, just like we were for Pfizer and Moderna, we are ready to get doses rolling,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as recounted by CBC.

“Vaccines will keep arriving faster and faster as we head into the spring,” Trudeau said.

The Health Canada decision came after two studies — involving 11,636 participants in the U.K. and Brazil — showed an efficacy rate of 62.1% after two standard doses. The efficacy rate was 59.5% in an updated analysis in which the second dose was administered 4 to 12 weeks after the first dose.

On top of the AstraZe…

South Africa pauses rollout of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

South Africa has scrapped its plans to vaccinate a portion of its population with the COVID-19 vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) after a small study showed it was ineffective against a variant widely circulating there.

In the interim, South Africa will rely on vaccines from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE).

Researchers at Oxford University and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa found the AstraZeneca vaccine to offer little to no protection against mild-to-moderate disease. The research has not been peer-reviewed.

Get the full story from our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development.

Which companies will likely produce the most COVID-19 vaccine in 2021?

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Since the beginning of the pandemic, much of society has pinned its hopes on the availability of a vaccine. Now that several are available across the world, there is hope, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, in a recent JAMA interview. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

One thing that will make the light at the end of the tunnel brighter as we head into the spring is the greater availability of vaccine doses. “The discordance between supply and demand will be diminished,” Fauci said.

The roster of companies producing vaccines is steadily increasing, making it possible to vaccinate a substantial portion of the world’s population this year. (Note: Most of the companies in this list have two-dose vaccines.)

Here’s a roundup of notable companies’ production targets for 2021:

AstraZeneca and Oxford University: Up to 3…

AstraZeneca puts COVID-19 vaccine trial on hold

AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) announced today that it voluntarily paused the trials for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate after an unexplained illness.

The company said in a news release that a standard review process was triggered so an independent committee could review safety data surrounding a single event of an unexplained illness that occurred in the UK Phase III trial for the AZD1222 vaccine being developed in collaboration with Oxford University.

Get the full story at our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development.

Oxford researchers report positive early trial results for COVID-19 vaccine candidate

[Image from Unsplash]

Researchers at Oxford University say early-stage results from a Phase I/II clinical trial of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate display safety and strong immune responses.

Results, published in The Lancet, revealed that the vaccine is safe, causes few side effects and induces strong immune responses in both parts of the immune system in the fight against COVID-19, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2.

A T cell response (a cellular immune response) was provoked within 14 days of vaccination and an antibody response within 28 days. Researchers say that an ideal SARS-CoV-2 vaccine should be effective after one or two vaccinations, confer protection for a minimum of 6 months and reduce onward transmission of the virus to contacts.

“The immune system has two ways of finding and attacking pathogens — antibody and T cell responses,” lead author and Oxford professor Andrew Pollard sa…

Oxford researchers find widely available steroid reduces COVID-19 deaths

Oxford researchers announced today that, following testing with thousands of patients, dexamethasone may improve patient survival in cases of COVID-19.

Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid commonly used for treating arthritis and other cases of inflammation. In total, 2,104 patients were randomized in Oxford’s trial to receive dexamethasone in doses of 6 mg, once per day, either by mouth or intravenous injection, over the course of 10 days.

Get the full story at our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development.