UK approves Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

Britain on Wednesday authorised emergency use of a second Covid-19 vaccine, becoming the first country to greenlight an easy-to-handle shot that its developers hope will become the vaccine for the world.

The Department of Health said it had accepted a recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to authorize the vaccine developed by Oxford University and UK-based drugmaker AstraZeneca.

Britain has bought 100 million doses of the vaccine, and plans to begin injections within days. Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK have already received a different vaccine, made by US drugmaker Pfizer and German firm BioNTech.

AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said it was “an important day for millions of people in the UK who will get access to this new vaccine. It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied by AstraZeneca at no profit.”

Partial results from studies in almost 24,000 people in Britain, Brazil and South Africa suggest the shots are safe and about 70 percent effective for preventing illness from coronavirus infection, UNB reports quoting AP.

That’s not as good as some other vaccine candidates, but Soriot recently told the Sunday Times newspaper that he was confident the vaccine would prove as effective as its rivals.

Coronavirus vaccines have typically been given in two doses, with an initial shot followed by a booster about three weeks later.

But in a change of approach, the British government said that with the AstraZeneca vaccine it would prioritise giving as many people as possible a single dose, which is believed to give a large measure of protection against the virus.

It said people at the highest risk would get priority, and everyone would get a second jab within 12 weeks of the first

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be relied on in many countries because of its low cost, availability and ease of use. It can be kept in refrigerators rather than the ultra-cold storage some other vaccines require.

The company has said it will sell it for $2.50 a dose and plans to make up to 3 billion doses by the end of 2021.

“We have a vaccine for the world,” said one study leader, Oxford’s Dr Andrew Pollard.