[ad_1]
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – In the days since the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca revealed the results of their phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trials, a growing number of questions have arisen .
The average reported efficiency was 70%, well below the 94.5% to 95% reported by the other two main candidates, Moderna and Pfizer.
However, this vaccine could prove to be more valuable to the world than the other two vaccines in the coming months.
If questions about its results are answered and approved, the product could be a pioneer in providing immunization coverage in the poorest countries, where it is needed most.
The UK government took the first step in the approval process on Friday, announcing it had formally referred the candidate to the UK Medicines Regulatory Authority for review.
AstraZeneca has pledged to deliver hundreds of millions of doses to low- and middle-income countries and deliver the vaccine on a non-profit basis to those countries.
The benefit of the vaccine, which was developed at the University of Oxford in England, is much cheaper than other vaccines.
And most importantly, it will be much easier to transport and distribute in developing countries compared to its competitors because it does not need to be stored at low temperatures.
The technology behind the vaccine
Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored at 2-8 ° C for at least 6 months.
As for the “Moderna” vaccine, it must be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius, or in the refrigerator for up to 30 days, and the “Pfizer-Bio-Tech” vaccine must be stored at a temperature of minus 75 degrees Celsius, and it should be used within 5 days after putting it in the refrigerator.
“Pfizer and Moderna require a cold room, which is not available in many places,” said Azra Ghani, head of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London.
Vaccines depend on different technologies and the “AstraZeneca” vaccine uses adenoviruses to transfer the genetic parts of the Corona virus to the body, such as the “Johnson & Johnson” vaccine and the Russian “Sputnik-V” vaccine.
As for “Moderna” and “Pfizer”, they use pieces of a genetic material called “mRNA” to stimulate the body to make artificial parts of the Corona virus, and to stimulate the immune response.
“This is a relatively new technology, and not much is known about the stability of mRNA over time,” said Penny Ward, chair of the College’s Education and Standards committee. of Pharmacology UK, at CNN.
Commit to help
AstraZeneca has pledged 300 million doses of its vaccine to COVAX, a partnership between the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), the World Health Organization and the Alliance for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to ensure equitable distribution to 92 developing countries.
Global effects
The “COVAX” initiative will be key to getting the vaccine to low- and middle-income countries, following the Duke University model.
The initiative aims to deliver two billion doses by the end of 2021 to protect vulnerable groups around the world and to deliver doses sufficient to eventually cover 20% of the population of these countries.
But Ghani warned that the percentage of 20% is still far from the ideal level required to achieve collective immunity, which is 70%.
Ghani stressed that it is necessary for everyone to be vaccinated for the world’s population, in order to be able to travel and move across borders.
According to current models, the introduction of the vaccine to the world could take until 2023, not to mention the potential need for booster doses.
Source link
