Oxford / AstraZeneca COVID shot less effective against the South African variant: study

(Reuters) – British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca AZN.L said on Saturday that his vaccine developed with the University of Oxford appeared to offer only limited protection against mild illnesses caused by the South African variant of COVID-19, based on initial trial data.

The study by the University of Witwatersrand of South Africa and the University of Oxford showed that the vaccine significantly reduced effectiveness against the South African variant, according to a report by the Financial Times published earlier in the day.

Among the variants of the coronavirus currently of most concern to scientists and public health specialists are the so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants, which appear to spread more rapidly than others.

“In this small phase I / II study, initial data showed limited efficacy against mild disease mainly due to the South African variant B.1.351,” said an AstraZeneca spokesman in response to the FT report.

The newspaper said none of the study’s more than 2,000 participants were hospitalized or died.

“However, we were unable to adequately determine its effect against serious illness and hospitalization, since the subjects were predominantly young, healthy adults,” said the AstraZeneca spokesman.

The company said it believed its vaccine could protect against serious illnesses, since the neutralizing antibody’s activity was equivalent to that of other COVID-19 vaccines that have shown protection against serious illnesses.

The trial, which involved 2,026 people, half of whom formed the placebo group, was not peer-reviewed, FT said.

Although thousands of individual changes have emerged as the virus has evolved into new variants, only a small minority is likely to be important or change the virus appreciably, according to the British Medical Journal.

“Oxford University and AstraZeneca have started adapting the vaccine against this variant and will rapidly advance clinical development so that it is ready for delivery in the fall, if necessary,” said the AstraZeneca spokesman.

On Friday, Oxford said his vaccine has similar effectiveness against the British coronavirus variant, as it has the previously circulating variants.