Data on AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine fails to impress Wall Street analysts with effectiveness in clinical trials



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AstraZeneca’s investigational COVID-19 vaccine is the third vaccine to show that it can prevent coronavirus infections in an advanced clinical trial, although the viral vector vaccine is much less effective than other major vaccines candidates.

AstraZeneca AZN shares,
-1.08%

AZN,
+ 1.60%
were down 1.9% in trade on Monday after the company said its two-dose vaccine produced an average efficacy rate of 70% in a Phase 3 clinical trial.

The UK drugmaker, which is developing the vaccine with the University of Oxford, said the vaccine had a 90% effectiveness rate in a small subset of around 2,700 participants in Brazil and the UK who received half a dose and then a full dose of four. weeks later, according to an interim analysis. A larger group of nearly 8,900 participants produced an efficacy rate of 62% when they received two full doses, one month apart.

The average efficacy rate for this vaccine is significantly lower than the efficacy rates of around 95% reported last week for BioNTech BNTX,
+ 2.33%
and PFE from Pfizer Inc.,
-0.49%
experimental vaccine, BNT162b2, and mRNA from Moderna Inc.,
+ 3.50%
MRNA-1273 – both of which are messenger ribonucleic acid or mRNA vaccines.

(None of these drugmakers have yet published clinical data on vaccine performance in advanced clinical trials in peer-reviewed medical journals, which is considered the gold standard for research sharing. medical. data points.)

AstraZeneca’s decision to include two efficiency rates has been criticized by a Wall Street analyst as insufficient. However, the inclusion of the smaller subset with a higher efficacy rate may indicate a company strategy to push this vaccine into less developed country markets. They “are already clearly positioning the product as suitable for use in less developed countries, where their relatively favorable storage conditions … may be advantageous,” SVB Leerink’s Geoffrey Porges wrote in a note to investors on Monday. “We believe that this product will never be licensed in the United States”

Among the handful of vaccines that have undergone advanced clinical studies in the United States, there are a number of notable differences among all of them.

An mRNA vaccine has never received regulatory approval, and those currently being tested have refrigeration requirements that will likely impact the ease of dispensing a vaccine. Vaccines based on viral vectors, such as ChAdOx1 from AstraZeneca and JNJ from Johnson & Johnson,
-1.01%
The Ebola virus vaccine has been around for decades and does not require the same level of cold storage.

The global race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine also carries economic weight for nations, as developed countries like the United States and parts of Western Europe that have failed to limit epidemics with a social distancing see vaccination as the main solution to the pandemic.

“The profile of a vaccine can impact how quickly a country emerges from COVID19 – those who can afford to wait for a stronger option may be well served by doing so,” Josh Schimmer told investors on Monday , Evercore ISI analyst. “Rushing to take a ‘less than’ option can only delay recovery. In this case, ChAdOx1 is not the solution. “

BioNTech and Pfizer filed for emergency use authorization last week, putting their vaccine candidate on the front line to potentially receive marketing authorization in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee to meet on December 10 to discuss the risks and benefits of BNT162b2.

AstraZeneca stock has gained 8.9% so far this year, while the S&P 500 SPX,
+ 0.56%
is up 10.1%.

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