Philippines to buy 2 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Nov 27, 2020
On Monday, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford also reported that their vaccine was effective towards COVID-19.
Astra and Oxford said their vaccine was 90% effective when a half-dose was given before a full-dose booster, and that two full doses showed an efficacy of 62%. Combined, the drugmakers said the vaccine appeared to be 70 percent effective.
The partial results announced on Monday are from large ongoing studies in the United Kingdom and Brazil created to determine the optimal dose of vaccine, as well as examine safety and effectiveness. Multiple combinations and doses were tested in volunteers. They were compared to others who were given a meningitis vaccine or a saline shot.
It is to be noted that unlike Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 candidate vaccines that require ultra-cold storage, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored, transported, and handled at normal refrigerated conditions between two and eight degrees' Celsius for at least six months and can be administered within existing health care settings.
The Pune-based firm has partnered with AstraZeneca and Oxford University to produce the Covishield vaccine in India.
All in all, apart from vaccine's approval for treatment based on efficacy result, the vaccine's reliability also depend on factors -when a major range of population shows good results, when the participants cooperate with firms for further testing post trials to help monitor the safety data; and also fetch the safety data after the vaccines release in markets. It pledges not to make profit on the vaccine during pandemic.
According to the manufacturer, these occurred less frequently after a second dose and more often after the first dose, and could be treated with paracetamol and painkillers if required. "Moderna has indicated that it will also soon apply for Emergency Use Authorization and, if approved, could be available in early January".
Medical researchers across the world are in heated meetings to generate new ideas about another troubling conduct of the individuals who are demonstrating high reliability in a vaccine.
Since age is the biggest risk factor for getting seriously ill with Covid-19, a vaccine that protects the elderly is extremely important.
"They have solid data for a relatively weak vaccine and weaker data for a relatively strong one", he warned of the low numbers accidentally given the half-dosage.
He added that the company is having discussions with regulators around the world to evaluate the findings and that they are looking forward to the publication of peer-reviewed results.
"I think it's important that we don't change behavior exclusively on the basis of vaccination", he said.
On the 90% efficacy result, he said: "We've proved significance in all of those subgroups to a p value of 0.0001".
