Oxford – AstraZeneca vaccine prevents 79% of symptomatic disease, US data shows
AstraZeneca and its research partner Oxford University released the first set of results on of the large clinical trial they have run in the U.S. for their COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, finding that it is safe and prevents 79% of symptomatic disease.
Interim results on the 32,000-person trial showed that the vaccine met Food and Drug Administration guidelines for safety and effectiveness. The company announced it will continue to analyze the trial results while applying for permission to begin distributing its two-dose vaccine in the United States in the first half of April.
It would be the fourth vaccine authorized for use in the U.S., alongside ones from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
“We are very excited,” AstraZeneca executive vice president Ruud Dobber said in a Monday call with reporters. “The data set is very, very robust.”
Countries across Europe, which had previously authorized the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, paused its use after a number of people developed blood clots or other clotting disorders shortly after receiving the vaccine. It has already been distributed to nearly 20 million people across Europe, the U.K., and Asia.
Last week, the European Medicines found the vaccine safe for general use, though it could not rule out the shot’s role in rare blood clots in the vessels draining the brain, called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.
There were no cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in this trial.
“We’ve had absolute confidence in the efficacy of the vaccine, but I think seeing this data now, I hope gives others increased confidence that this is a very effective and safe vaccine,” Menelas Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals research and development, said in a statement.
Among participants in the new trial, 141 people have developed symptomatic COVID-19 so far. None of those who received the vaccine, currently called AZD1222, were hospitalized or died from COVID-19, making it 100% effective against severe disease, the company stated.
Two-thirds of the trial volunteers received the active vaccine while one-third received a salt-water placebo.
There was no apparent difference in the vaccine’s effectiveness across ethnicity or age. The vaccine was found to be 80% effective in those 65 and up, the first time it has been tested in such a large group of seniors, the company said.
The trial was led by AstraZeneca and funded by the U.S. government.