The Oxford-AstraZeneca PLC (LON: AZN) COVID-19 vaccine has travelled a bumpy road through its development and rollout. Marred with accusations of the vaccine causing blood clots, regulatory and government pressures have weighed on the drug developer and its acceptance.
According to the latest press release from AstraZeneca, the company has revised the vaccine's efficacy from 79% to 76%, following further analysis with an additional 49 symptomatic COVID-19 cases.
Details of the COVID-19 vaccine findings
After scrutiny from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for purportedly out-of-date data in the original phase 3 preliminary study, AstraZeneca conducted a fuller analysis to lay any claims to rest.
The findings, which were published yesterday, included 32,449 participants. Of those participants, 190 were symptomatic with COVID-19. This provided the drug developer an additional 49 cases compared to its original analysis.
Following the double-blind placebo study, AstraZeneca found its vaccine to have an efficacy of 76% rather than the previous 79%. Notably, the vaccine was found to have a 100% efficacy against severe or critical disease and hospitalisation. Furthermore, for individuals aged 65 years or older, the vaccine proved to be 85% effective.
Perhaps most importantly, considering the swarm of allegations, the vaccine was well tolerated, and no safety concerns related to the vaccine were identified.
Commenting on the further substantiated results, Executive Vice President Mere Pangalos stated:
The primary analysis is consistent with our previously released interim analysis and confirms that our COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in adults, including those aged 65 years and over. We look forward to filing our regulatory submission for Emergency Use Authorization in the US and preparing for the rollout of millions of doses across America.
Australia's AstraZeneca rollout in progress
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues in Australia. On Monday the government commenced phase 1B of the rollout. Phase 1B includes the following priority groups:
- Elderly adults aged 80 years and over
- Elderly adults aged 70 years and over
- Health care workers not vaccinated in phase 1A
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults over 55
- Adults with a specified medical condition
- Adults with a severe disability who have a specified underlying medical condition
- Critical and high-risk workers including defence, police, fire, emergency services, and meat processing
The AstraZeneca vaccine was also recently approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for local production by CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL) in Melbourne.
The biopharmaceutical giant sent out its first batch on Wednesday morning, containing 832,200 doses. Production is expected to ramp up as the company targets 50 million doses by the end of the year.
