The COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca could be approved “shortly after Christmas,” according to Oxford University medical professor Regius, which raises the hopes of millions of people and businesses affected by pandemics across the country.
John Bell told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that he hoped the British medical regulator would give the green light to the joint experiment by AstraZeneca AZN.
and Oxford University, “very soon.”
The Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency has received “several sets of data” on the candidate for the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, Bell told the BBC, adding that he had “no concern what the data they look better than ever. “
“I doubt we’ll do Christmas now, but right after Christmas I would wait,” Bell said.
Shares in AstraZeneca AZN,
which have risen more than 4% so far this year, trading 0.57% lower in London on Wednesday.
Read: AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID capture is “safe and effective”, show full test data
Data from AstraZeneca trials in the United Kingdom and Brazil, published in the medical journal The Lancet on December 9, showed that the vaccine candidate had a 62% efficacy for participants in full-dose trials, but 90% per group given one half, then a full dose.
The UK government has ordered 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca and Oxford shot, with 40 million doses available by the end of March 2021.
Approval would help speed up vaccinations across the country as it faces a mutated variant of coronavirus that could be 70% more contagious and is believed to be behind a recent increase in COVID-19 cases. in London and the south-east of England.
Read: A new Covid-19 strain is shutting down Europe. What you need to know.
Since Sunday, more than 40 countries have closed their borders to UK arrivals to curb the spread of the new strain. However, in late Tuesday, France reopened its borders with the UK to travelers and truck drivers who demonstrated a negative coronavirus test in the last 72 hours.
AstraZeneca told Reuters on Tuesday that its vaccine candidate should be effective against the new variety of the coronavirus variant and said studies were being conducted to analyze the impact of the variant.
“AZD1222 (candidate for the AstraZeneca vaccine) contains the genetic material for the SARS-CoV-2 virus ear protein, and the changes in the genetic code seen in this new viral strain do not appear to change the structure of the ear protein.” , an AstraZeneca spokesman told the news agency.
Read: BioNTech chief says more tests are needed to see if vaccine protects against new strain COVID-19
AstraZeneca’s comments come after BioNTech BNTX CEO
said that the vaccine of the German company, which was developed with the American partner Pfizer PFE,
needed further testing to determine if the shot will be able to provide protection against the new variant.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is already used in the US, UK, Canada and several other countries. It was approved by the European Medicines Authority and the European Commission on Tuesday, and deliveries are expected to start on Saturday. Germany, Austria and Italy are some of the countries that have said they plan to start vaccines from Sunday.