Content creators mean business
Social media influencers are flipping the rules by first getting followers and then launching products and ...
The Oxford University-AstraZeneca combine’s vaccine candidate has shown 70-90 per cent efficacy in preventing Covid-19, depending on its dosage.
According to an interim analysis of clinical trials done in the UK and Brazil, “One dosing regimen showed vaccine efficacy of 90 percent when AZD1222 was given as a half dose, followed by a full dose at least one month apart, and another dosing regimen showed 62 per cent efficacy when given as two full doses at least one month apart. The combined analysis from both dosing regimens resulted in an average efficacy of 70 per cent,” a note from AstraZeneca (AZ) said. The interim analysis was done after 131 Covid-19 cases were reported.
“We have a vaccine for the world,” said Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, in a global media interaction. Explaining the dosing, where a half-dose was given first followed by a second full dose, he said, it helped “prime” the immune system, though more work needed to be done. Sarah Gilbert, Saïd Professorship of Vaccinology, Jenner Institute, Oxford University, added, that the dosing possibly mimicked the real system, in the way the body responded to a virus.
Pollard further pointed out that their vaccine candidate could be distributed around the world using the regular immunisation distribution system, as it needed normal refrigerated storage conditions (2-8 degrees Celsius).
India’s Serum Institute has a production and distribution alliance on this vaccine for low-and-middle income countries.
Govt bets big on India-made Covid vaccines
AZ said it will seek an Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization for an accelerated pathway to vaccine availability in low-income countries. Company officials, however, did not disclose details on when this was likely to happen.
Pascal Soriot, AZ Chief Executive Officer, pointed out that there were no hospitalisations or severe cases of the disease, in participants receiving the vaccine. On the shorter first doze, he added, it would increase the number doses that become available.
The statement on AZ’s “highly effective” vaccine candidate comes after a string of similar announcements from America’s Pfizer and Moderna and Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, all claiming over 90 per cent efficacy on their vaccine candidates. However, Moderna and Pfizer candidates involve new technology, with the latter posing distribution challenges, requiring storage conditions of -70 degrees.
AZ said it had the capacity to make upto 3 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021 on a rolling basis, pending regulatory approval, it said.
Over 23,000 participants are being assessed presently. Clinical trials are underway in the United States, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Kenya and Latin America with planned trials in other European and Asian countries. About 60,000 participants are to be enrolled globally.
Social media influencers are flipping the rules by first getting followers and then launching products and ...
Paneer, once alien to the South, has found a lucrative market in Chennai
WPP agency Wunderman Thompson has launched its annual Future 100 report, lifting the lid on trends shaping the ...
Carriers claim that all measures — including pre-flight tests, cabin sanitisation and fresh air inflow — have ...
What filters should you apply when mining for under-the-radar small-cap stocks? Read on to find more
High valuation, intensely competitive landscape and small cap nature of the stock are key risks.
Amid choppiness, the benchmark indices slipped marginally; approach the week with caution
SBI Cards (₹1,032.7): Witnesses fresh breakoutBetween September and December last year, the stock of SBI Cards ...
A virus swept aside 2020 plans to mark the 250th year of the birth of Beethoven. We need the German composer’s ...
Marie leaned back in the chair, holding the brandy to her chest, the rain tapping on the windowpanes. She ...
The story of the 21-gun salute goes back a long way
The current India team didn’t just clinch a series in Australia. It also tugged at the heartstrings with ...
Social media influencers are flipping the rules by first getting followers and then launching products and ...
WPP agency Wunderman Thompson has launched its annual Future 100 report, lifting the lid on trends shaping the ...
Paneer, once alien to the South, has found a lucrative market in Chennai
The Flipkart kids playing adults are back — this time to push the home grown e-commerce marketplace’s grocery ...
Three years after its inception, compliance with GST procedures remains a headache for exporters, job workers ...
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of companies are altering the prospects for wooden toys of ...
Aequs Aerospace to create space for large-scale manufacture of toys at Koppal
And it has every reason to smile. Covid-19 has triggered a consumer shift towards branded products as ...
Please Email the Editor