Oxford AstraZeneca Announces ‘Winning Formula’

The vaccine Oxford AstraZeneca, developed by the Swedish university and laboratory, will be approved this week in Great Britain. But with “a winning formula” to improve its efficiency, which will reach levels such as Pfizer and Moderna, already approved by London. It is 100% effective, protects 95% of patients and is “cheap as a cup of coffee”. This is the vaccine that is produced in an Argentinian laboratory and in Mexico.

Pascal Soriot, the chief pharmacist behind the Oxford vaccine, said researchers had found a “winning formula” to improve it, he told the journal. The Sunday Times of London today. It is “stable and easy to move”.

Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, told The Sunday Times: “We believe we have discovered the winning formula and how to achieve efficacy that after two doses is comparable to all others.”

“I can’t say more because we’ll be releasing at some point,” he said.

Trials of the vaccine, developed by the university in collaboration with AstraZeneca, have shown a 90% effectiveness rate when people are given a half-dose, followed by a full dose at least a month later.

When two full doses were given, at least one month apart, the vaccine was 62% effective. Which means that when all results were taken into account, the overall efficiency was 70%.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were found to be 95% and 94.5% effective, respectively.

The improvement announced by Pascal Soriot will be relief to the British government, who ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine. Around 40 million doses are expected to be available by the end of March.

Soriot said the previous results were considered by the drug company to be positive. “They meet the criteria set by regulators around the world. We guess people would be a little disappointed, that’s for sure. But we weren’t expecting this storm,” he admitted.

His words come amid reports that the vaccine could be approved next weeka, following the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the first week of December in the kingdom.

The Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine also produced in Argentina and Mexico, in a joint project in South America.

At this time, the only way to get the vaccine is via the NHS, the UK health service. However, it was reported that private clinics received daily requests from patients trying to skip the line.

Despite the offer of thousands of pounds, all patients will currently have to wait their turn to receive one of the doses pre-ordered by the UK government. It is not known whether they will be able to be purchased by private clinics or not in the kingdom.

The distribution of the Oxford vaccine could begin on January 4, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The UK government predicts that more than two million people will be able to receive their first dose within the first two weeks.

In response to the report, the government said the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) should be given time to review vaccine data.

“The drug regulator is review of final data from phase three clinical trials of the University of Oxford AstraZeneca to determine whether the vaccine meets its strict standards for quality, safety and efficacy, ”explained its spokesperson.

“We must now give the MHRA time to carry out its important work and we must await their advice,” he warned.

Delays in Great Britain

The Sunday Mirror Sunday reported that hundreds of general practitioners and hospital surgeons were still waiting for doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Some appointments to vaccinate vulnerable people have been canceled due to delays.

The Sunday People reported that residents of 12,000 nursing homes had not received the vaccine despite being high on the priority list.

Nadra Ahmed, president of the National Care Association, told the Sunday Mirror that implementing Pfizer BioNTech was going to be “difficult. “This is another case of the massive over-promise of something that just can’t be delivered. It’s constant.”

Labor Party shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth urged the government to avoid what he said was “the same mistakes again” by being “too slow” to protect the residents of the retirement home “.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak praised the vaccination efforts so far. “There will be difficult days and months ahead. But there are reasons to look to a better future and what 2021 holds,” he said.

“The early vaccine launch, and the incredible work of our scientists and the NHS, means we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel with this pandemic,” he said.

The new variant

The new formulation of the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine comes as concerns grow about the spread of a new variant of the virus, which was first detected in the UK and appears to be more easily transmitted than the original version. The variant has already reached France, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Lebanon.

Additionally, this Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine comes as many parts of the UK have adopted stricter restrictions designed to limit the spread of the virus.

Nobody rules out childbirth in France either, where the new variant has arrived and today a 78-year-old woman received the first Pfizer vaccine at the hospital in Sevran, in Seine Saint Denis, 5 minutes from Paris. .

He is one of the 20 people who will be vaccinated this Sunday in France. Application of the vaccine will be gradual. 23 establishments in the regions of Paris, Lyon, Lille and Tours should receive the vaccine.