It was the first country in the world to approve the use of a new coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, United Kingdom.
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The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has indicated that it needs further data for conditional marketing authorization of AstraZeneca. The last set of EMA data was received from the manufacturer on December 21. AstraZeneca has stated that it continuously provides the Agency with all data obtained from clinical trials. EMA expects further data in the first quarter of next year.
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United States until April
The use of the AstraZeneca vaccine will not be approved in the United States until early April, said Monicef Slaoui, head of the US government’s vaccination team. He said the US authorities would be waiting for data from further clinical trials, and the manufacturer needed to better demonstrate the effectiveness of the vaccine in the elderly.
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AstraZeneca’s preparation, like the substance from the American company Moderna, which is already being vaccinated in the United States, has more favorable storage requirements. It is not necessary to store it in extremely low temperatures around minus 70 degrees Celsius as a vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.
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Thanks to easier storage and distribution, the AstraZeneca vaccine could be used by more countries than competing products, especially in less accessible areas. A lower price also works in its favor.
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According to AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot, the vaccine has “proved to be effective, well tolerated, easy to administer and will be delivered without profit by AstraZeneca,” the AP quoted Soriot and the British health minister as saying. coronavirus mutations.
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Three billion doses
AstraZeneca said it will sell one dose for $ 2.5 (about $ 53). It plans to produce up to three billion batches by the end of next year. It has already agreed on production with several partners abroad, the Indian Serum Institute of India is to produce a billion batches for the company, which will probably be used in poorer countries, writes AP. AstraZeneca also has production contracts with manufacturers in Brazil, South Africa and China.
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Clinical trials have shown that the Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine has an efficacy of around 70 percent. Due to a technical error in production, parts of the 24,000 tested were given the first dose of the vaccine at half strength and the efficacy was then 90 percent. However, it was too small a sample, about a tenth of those tested, to draw conclusions from it. Another clinical trial of AstraZeneca is now underway in the United States.
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