AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said on Sunday that the British pharmaceutical company’s vaccine is believed to be effective against the new coronavirus strain detected in the UK
“Until now, we believe that the vaccine should be effective. But we can’t be sure, so we’ll try, “Soriot said when asked how the vaccine could resist the new variant of the virus.
The Associated Press reports that Soriot told the Sunday Times that AstraZeneca researchers had discovered a “winning formula” for making his formula as effective as Pfizer’s or Moderna’s, both already approved. The AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be approved this week, the AP notes.
“We think we’ve figured out the winning formula and how to achieve an effectiveness that, after two doses, is there with everyone else,” Soriot said.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in collaboration with Oxford University, was not initially thought to be as effective as its US counterparts, with partial results suggesting that it is 70% effective in preventing disease, it reports. AP.
This new strain of the virus has caused alarm around the world, as many countries limit or ban travel from the UK. The variant is thought to be significantly more contagious than the pre-existing coronavirus strain, although it is not thought to be more fatal or cause more severe symptoms.
Modern said last week that she also believed her vaccine could effectively protect people against the new strain.
A key difference in the AstraZeneca vaccine is that, unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, it is not an mRNA vaccine. These vaccines teach the immune systems to create certain proteins that trigger an immune response without introducing the actual virus into the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention..
The AstraZeneca vaccine uses a weakened version of the virus itself to teach the immune system how to defend it.
The United Kingdom was the first Western country to approve a coronavirus vaccine, granting approval of the Pfizer vaccine in early December. As of Dec. 24, more than 600,000 have been vaccinated in the UK, AP reports.