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The World Health Organization on Monday cleared the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, paving the way for inexpensive, easy-to-store injections for distribution in low- and middle-income countries around the world.
A small clinical trial in South Africa recently failed to show that the vaccine could prevent people from contracting mild or moderate cases of Covid-19 caused by a variant of the coronavirus spreading there. But this vaccine had protected all participants from serious illness and death in other trials and could still prevent serious illness and death caused by the variant first detected in South Africa.
The clearance, expected after a WHO expert panel recommended the vaccine’s use last week, applied to the two manufacturers of the vaccine: AstraZeneca and the Serum Institute, the Indian producer who will supply many doses to the Covax initiative to bring vaccines to the poorest regions of the world.
The WHO approved the Pfizer-BionNTech vaccine last year. But his decision on AstraZeneca’s vaccine was eagerly awaited, as the low price and easy storage requirements made the vaccine the backbone of plans for deployment in many countries around the world.
“Countries without access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start immunizing their health workers and populations at risk, thus contributing to the Covax Facility’s objective of equitably distributing vaccines”, Dr Mariângela Simão, Executive Director WHO deputy for access to medicines and health products, said in a statement.
The WHO expert group recommended that the AstraZeneca vaccine be used in all adults and in countries where new variants are circulating. Countries are expected to start receiving their first installments of Covax’s AstraZeneca vaccine later in February.
Announcing the vaccine authorization on Monday, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said that while cases of the virus appeared to be declining in many parts of the world, countries should remain vigilant.
“If we stop fighting it on any front,” he said, “it will come back in force.”
After the publication of the results of the small clinical trial of the AstraZeneca vaccine in South Africa, South Africa decided to suspend its distribution plans. Instead, South Africa planned to inoculate health workers with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has avoided hospitalizations and deaths in clinical trials in the country.
The WHO panel that reviewed the AstraZeneca vaccine also advised that it be given to adults regardless of age, breaking with a number of European countries that have chosen to restrict use of the vaccine to young people. And he recommended that the two doses of the vaccine be given between four and 12 weeks apart, citing evidence that the vaccine appears to work best when second doses are delayed.
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