AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 Vaccine is Effective Against UK Strain, Researchers Find

The AstraZeneca (AZ)/Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine remains effective against the fast-spreading UK viral variant, Oxford researchers have shown in a late-stage trial.

The UK researchers took swabs from 256 infected individuals given either the vaccine or a control and concluded that the AZ/Oxford vaccine demonstrated 74.6 percent efficacy against the UK variant and 84 percent efficacy against the original virus, according to a preprint analysis published in The Lancet.

The data indicate that the vaccine “not only protects against the original pandemic virus, but also protects against the novel variant, B.1.1.7, which caused the surge in disease from the end of 2020 across the UK,” said Andrew Pollard, a chief investigator of the Oxford vaccine trial.

Another chief investigator of the trial, Sarah Gilbert, said that variants significant enough to warrant vaccine modifications have been expected, and the university is currently working with AstraZeneca “to optimize the pipeline required for a strain change” in case one is needed, she said.

“This is the same issue that is faced by all of the vaccine developers, and we will continue to monitor the emergence of new variants that arise in readiness for a future strain change,” Gilbert said.

The researchers did not address the vaccine’s effectiveness against another fast-spreading variant first identified in South Africa that appears to hamper other COVID-19 vaccines.

In related vaccine news, CureVac announced that it is working with the UK government to develop multiple vaccine candidates for COVID-19 variants. Any successful shots that come out of the collaboration will be manufactured and used in the UK, the company said. Under the agreement, CureVac has promised to supply an initial 50 million variant vaccine doses to the country. The UK government has pledged to expedite any necessary trials for approvals of these vaccines.

CureVac has also joined forces with GlaxoSmithKline to develop a messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccine designed to protect against emerging variants. The pair expect to have the vaccine ready in 2022 (DID, Feb. 4).

Read the preprint study report here: bit.ly/2Z2ivJj. — James Miessler