LONDON – AstraZeneca said on Thursday that it hopes to have a new version of its COVID-19 vaccine ready for use this fall, as drug makers respond to concerns about emerging variants of the disease that may be more transmissible or resistant to existing vaccines.
The Anglo-Swedish company, which makes a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, said it is working with scientists at the university to adapt the vaccine to combat new variants. The researchers started this work months ago, when the variants were first detected, said Mene Pangalos, head of biopharmaceutical research at AstraZeneca.
“We are advancing rapidly and we have several variant versions in progress, which we will choose from as we enter the clinic,” Pangalos said in a conference call with reporters.
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The comments came as CEO Pascal Soriot defended the company’s efforts to develop and increase injection production amid criticism from the European Union and a preliminary study that raised concerns about the vaccine’s ability to fight a variant of COVID-19 discovered by first time in South Africa.
Although the distribution of the vaccine was not perfect, regulators in several countries considered the vaccine safe and effective, and AstraZeneca will produce 100 million doses this month, Soriot said. Only a handful of vaccines have been authorized for widespread use among hundreds that started being developed a year ago, he noted.
Syringes and a package with the AstraZeneca vaccine are ready and waiting at the fourth vaccination center in Berlin at Tegel Airport, Germany, Wednesday, February 10, 2021.
(Kay Nietfeld / Pool via AP)
“One hundred million doses in February means 100 million vaccinations, which means hundreds of thousands of serious infections that are prevented, and it also means thousands of deaths that are prevented,” said Soriot.
The EU struggled last month with AstraZeneca after the company cut initial vaccine deliveries to the bloc because of production problems.
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Although the European Medicines Agency has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use by everyone over the age of 18, some European countries, including France and Germany, have recommended that people over 65 not receive the injection due to limited data on their effectiveness in older people.
Just this week, researchers released preliminary results from a small-scale study in South Africa that found that the vaccine did little to prevent mild to moderate cases of the disease caused by the prevalent variant in the country. The study also looked at only healthy young people.
But Soriot stressed that the vaccine is very good at preventing serious illness and death, which is the most important goal.
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“We can get lost in a lot of details about this and that, but you have to look at the big picture,” said Soriot. “And the general picture is that today we have a vaccine that has been approved by several important regulators, all these scientific issues have already been judged by the regulators … This month we are going to manufacture 100 million doses, in April 200 million doses. “