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AstraZeneca developed a Covid-19 vaccine candidate with the University of Oxford.
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The coronavirus vaccine developed by
AstraZeneca
and the University of Oxford is scheduled for approval in the UK, paving the way for widespread vaccinations with a homemade injection that is cheaper and easier to transport and store than other vaccines.
The Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency, the UK’s drug regulator, will eminently authorize the vaccine from AstraZeneca-Oxford University for emergency use, according to reports by the Financial Times and The Telegraph. The vaccine can be approved in a few days.
The shares of AstraZeneca, a British pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, traded 3.3% higher in London on Tuesday.
The vaccine is 90% effective when patients take half a dose, followed by a full dose. Two full doses taken one month apart resulted in less than 62% effectiveness. When all results are calculated, overall effectiveness drops to 70%, compared to rivals by around 95%.
In an interview with the Sunday Times last weekend, AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said: “We think we have found the winning formula and how to achieve effectiveness that, after two doses, is up to everyone else. I can’t say any more because we will be publishing at some point.
The approval would come weeks after the United Kingdom became the first country to authorize a Covid-19 vaccine based on large-scale clinical trials, when it gave the green light for the American pharmaceutical injection.
Pfizer
and his german partner
BioNTech
on December 2nd.
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The approval of the vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford can make a huge difference in helping the UK fight the coronavirus pandemic and lift the severe restrictions of social distance that were put in place before Christmas.
Senior politician Michael Gove told Sky News on Monday that if the vaccine passes and the launch goes according to plan, it may be possible to lift severe restrictions.
About 24 million people in England, including all of London, now live under the strictest level of restrictions, including a “stay at home” order. The UK recorded a record 53,135 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday.
If approved, the local AstraZeneca-Oxford University injection would give the UK domestic capacity for vaccine production.
More:The acquisition of Alexion is a major expansion for AstraZeneca. Why the stock fell 7%.
The candidate vaccine is also cheaper and easier to transport and store than that of Pfizer and BioNTech. This vaccine should be kept at ultra-low temperatures of -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit), compared to the storage required by the British vaccine at normal refrigerator temperatures.
Although the vaccine may be launched soon in the UK, it may be February before it is approved in much of Europe.
Noël Wathion, the deputy executive director of the European Medicines Authority, the European Union’s drug regulator, told the Belgian press on Tuesday that the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine was unlikely to be approved in the EU next month. Wathion said the pharmaceutical company has not yet filed an order with the regulator.