London – One of the strongest weapons against the worrying number of new coronavirus variants in the United States and around the world could be a vaccine that the FDA has not yet approved.
Earlier this month, the World Health Organization gave the go-ahead for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to be used internationally, and is already being distributed in countries around the world to help combat COVID-19. But AstraZeneca is awaiting the results of clinical trials in America, which it hopes to close in the coming weeks, before placing its order with the FDA.
In the meantime, spurred on by the fact that their vaccine is relatively easy to update, scientists at Oxford University in Britain are modifying it in a preventive attack to prevent new variants of the coronavirus, including the variant first discovered time in South Africa, appear.
“Plug and play”
Chief designer Professor Sarah Gilbert told CBS News that her team has been working on modifying her vaccine to combat new variants of the coronavirus for months and hopes to have a new version ready in the fall.
The ability to spin on a dime depends on the “plug and play” platform used in the original Oxford vaccine, said Gilbert.
“You decide which antigen you want to use from the virus you want to make a vaccine against, exactly which version of it, and then you just insert it and make your vaccine,” she said.
She also emphasized that, since Oxford has its own on-campus biofabrication facility, modifications can be accelerated.
“We established our pipeline,” she said. “We make the first seed from the vaccine stock at the Oxford plant. It is just a few minutes from here, on campus.”
Gilbert said a modified vaccine – to combat not just the South African variant, but a number of worrying variants – could be launched in the United States in a matter of months.
“Surprising” impact
Even before the modification, Oxford scientists say their vaccine is highly effective in combating the fugitive variant first discovered in the UK. Preliminary real-life data shows that he reduced hospitalizations by 94%, even surpassing the Pfizer vaccine.
“We saw the first widespread use of a vaccine in an environment where a new variant has emerged,” Oxford Vaccine Group chief Andrew Pollard told CBS News. “The vaccine has an impact against this variant. This is surprising.”
Part of the reason for this success is the 12-week interval between doses in the United Kingdom, instead of the currently standard four-week program in the United States, Pollard said.
“If you give this vaccine to many, many more people as the first dose, it ends the hospitalization and deaths immediately, while if you give two doses together, you will be selfishly giving these two doses to half the number of people, reducing this deployment and population protection, “said Pollard.
Over 500,000 people killed in the United States, and new variants continue to emerge, the need to release more photos faster has never been higher.