The AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine is effective in people over 65 years, a company executive clarified, as more countries expressed concerns on giving it to their elderly.

Mene Pangalos, AZ Executive Vice-President (BioPharmaceuticals research and development), said the vaccine response in older people was similar to that in younger ones in terms of antibodies and T-cell creation.

The clarification comes as health authorities in Sweden and France joined Germany in restricting the use of the vaccine to those below 65 years, due to insufficient data, according to reports. Pangalos added, more data would be available on this in the coming month, including from the United States.

Meanwhile, the company was working on readying the next generation versions of the vaccine, “as rapidly as possible”, he said, possibly by Autumn this year. Professor Andrew Pollard, Chief Investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial, said they were looking at the virus variants being reported out of different regions. The process to get the “edited version” of the vaccine was shorter, he added.

Representatives of AZ and the Oxford University were interacting with the media following the pre-print publication of the primary analysis from their Phase III trials in The Lancet. Besides confirming 100 percent protection against severe disease, hospitalisation and death, the analysis indicated the vaccine’s potential to reduce disease transmission upto 67 percent, it said.

The development comes close on the heels of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine publishing peer-reviewed data in the same medical journal. The interim analysis of the Phase III trials confirmed over 91 percent efficacy, including in those over 60 years, a note from Russia’s Gamaleya National Research Center (that developed the vaccine) and Russian Direct Investment Fund said on Tuesday.

Studies are underway on the AZ-Oxford vaccine and Sputnik V to study if a combined approach could boost efficacy.

Interim results

The AZ-Oxford primary analysis of Phase III data from the UK, Brazil and South Africa confirmed no hospitalisations and severe case more than 22 days after the first dose, a note on the findings said. “Results demonstrated vaccine efficacy of 76 percent after a first dose, with protection maintained to the second dose. With an inter-dose interval of 12 weeks or more, vaccine efficacy increased to 82 percent,” it added.

AstraZeneca is also seeking Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization, to facilitate quicker pick-up of the vaccine in low-income countries. Presently, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only one having this approval.

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