LONDON (AP) – The head of drug maker AstraZeneca, which is developing a coronavirus vaccine that is expected to be approved by British authorities this week, said on Sunday that investigators believe the shot will be effective against a new variant of the virus that causes a rapid increase in infections in Britain.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot also told the Sunday Times that researchers developing his vaccine have discovered a “winning formula” that makes the blow as effective as rival candidates.
Some have expressed concern that the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is being developed with Oxford University, may not be as good as the one manufactured by Pfizer which is already being distributed in the UK and other countries. Partial results suggest that AstraZeneca’s firing is about 70% effective in preventing coronary heart disease, compared to the 95% efficacy reported by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
“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. “I can’t tell you more, because at some point we’ll post.”
The British government says its drug regulator is reviewing the final data from AstraZeneca’s phase three clinical trials. The Times and others have reported that the green light could arrive on Thursday and that vaccines could begin rolling out to the UK public in the first week of January.
Asked about the effectiveness of the vaccine against the new coronavirus variant that is spreading in the UK, Soriot said: “So far, we believe the vaccine should be effective. But we can’t be sure, so we’ll try it.” .
British authorities have blamed the new variant of the virus for rising infection rates across the country. They said the variant is much more transmissible, but stress has no evidence to make people sicker.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson sounded an urgent alarm about the variant days before Christmas, saying the new version of the virus was spreading rapidly and plans to travel and meet must be canceled by the millions. Since then, authorities have placed areas of the country, which affect about 24 million people, or 43% of the population, at the strictest level of restrictions.
Many countries banned travel quickly from the UK, but since then cases of the new variant have also been reported in a dozen places around the world.
Public health officials said on Dec. 24 that more than 600,000 people had received the first of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.