Oxford Vaccine Will "Protect 95 Per Cent", Says AstraZeneca CEO: Report

The Oxford coronavirus vaccine will “protect 95 per cent of patients” and is “as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna” alternatives, Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, told British daily The Sunday Times, adding scientists had figured out a “winning formula to get efficacy up there with everybody else”.

However, AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharma giant, has yet to release data confirming these claims. Interim results of Phase III trials released last month showed a 70 per cent efficacy rate as the average of two dosing regimens. One of these regimens – a half dose followed by a full dose – showed 90 per cent efficacy, while Pfizer’s data showed 95 per cent and Moderna’s 94.5 per cent.

Mr Soriot also said the vaccine, which is likely to be cleared this week by the British health regulator, “should be” effective against an aggressive mutant strain of the virus first detected in London and southeast England in September.

The Oxford vaccine, which will be mass-produced in India by the Pune-based Serum Institute, is one of three drugs being considered for emergency use authorisation by the Indian government. The other two are those developed by Pfizer (which has already been rolled out in the United Kingdom, the United States and several European countries) and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

On Saturday sources told news agency PTI that the DCGI (Drug Controller General of India) was waiting for the British drug regulator to clear the Oxford vaccine.

Given that Pfizer is yet to present its data and Bharat Biotech hasn’t yet completed Phase III trials, it is likely, the sources added, that the AstraZeneca-Oxford drug will become the first Covid vaccine to be used in India. It also scores over its rivals on at least two critical counts – ease of storage and cost.

While the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius and the Moderna variant at minus 20 degrees Celsius, the Oxford vaccine can be kept at normal fridge temperatures – two to eight degrees Celsius. The difference could be crucial for a country as large as India.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top features why a dedicated WordPress hosting is best for your website

Dedicated servers are often looked upon as over-expensive web hosting solutions. You may consider them an overkill for your business, but there is no denying the fact that they are the best hosting solution out there. Today, we will tell you some features of a dedicated WordPresshosting that makesit the best for your business. Reliability This is the key factor why most businesses choose a dedicated WordPress server hosting to host their website. A dedicated WordPress hosting server is administered and maintained by a team of professionals who provide online support and work towards optimising the performance of the server. Unlike shared and VPS hosting plans which give you access to limited resources, dedicated server hosting provides a good hosting support. This in turn increases the reliability. Scalability Every business aims to grow their customer base and increase revenues. However, with the limited resources provided by theshared hosting, it can be challenging to handle the high
Read more

Elon Musk's "Use Signal" Post Spurred Massive Rally For The Wrong One

A two-word app recommendation from Elon Musk has turned into a massive rally in the shares of a tiny medical device company in another case of mistaken identity. “Use Signal,” the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer wrote on Twitter on Jan. 7, apparently referring to the encrypted messaging service. By the end of the day, Signal Advance Inc. shares had surged more than sixfold. That was enough to push Signal Advance’s rally more than 5,100% in three trading days giving it a market valuation of $390 million. Despite reports about the confusion on Friday, the stock has continued to rally. Shares of the Rosharon, Texas-based company surged as much as 885% on Monday before paring the gains. “We strongly recommend people do their due diligence and always invest with care,” the company’s chief executive officer, Dr. Chris Hymel, said when reached by phone on Monday. Signal Advance doesn’t have an association with Musk or the Signal app, he said. Signal Advance hasn’t filed an annual report wi
Read more

RBI Policy: MPC may keep policy rate unchanged at 6%; owl may sound hawkish

N- Urjit Patel, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and his five colleagues on the Monetary Policy Committee will not find it too hard to keep the key policy interest rate unchanged at the upcoming policy review on February 7. The 2-day deliberations on February 6 and 7 by the MPC on the repo rate decision are expected to remain tilted towards a pause mode, keeping the near term outlook hawkish. However, they may raise rates later given the risks of higher inflation with fiscal slippages and higher food prices with the government planning to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP). In the Budget last week, the government promised to ensure MSP of key crops at 1.5 times the cost of production. This could mean at least a 50-70-basis-points increase in the headline inflation number. While banks and bond markets have already signaled the end of the interest rate easing cycle, the MPC may keep the repo rate unchanged at 6 percent. Inflation risks Although, experts suggest the infl
Read more