The COVID-19 vaccine being developed in the UK's Oxford University will protect against the disease "for about a year", said the drugmaker, currently carrying out human trials with plans to produce two billion doses of the same.
Pharma company AstraZeneca has joined hands with the UK government to support the coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University. The company has already agreed to supply two billion doses across the world.
Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca's, told a Belgian radio on Tuesday that the third phase of vaccine trials has already started, which means it is the final phase in the clinical development of a vaccine. Now comes the vaccine to be given to thousands of people for efficacy and safety testing, which is phase 3.
In phase 1 trials, small groups of people receive the vaccine candidate. In phase 2, it is given to different people with varying characteristics such as age and health similar to those for whom the new vaccine is made. Many vaccines also undergo Phase 4 studies, even after the vaccine is approved and licensed.
Protection For About a Year
Commenting on the Oxford vaccine Soriot said that it will protect people "for about a year," reports Sky News. If things go well, clinical trial results would be in hand by September. At the same time, parallel manufacturing is going on in several parts of the world, said the company earlier.
"We will be ready to deliver from October if all goes well," he added. However, AstraZeneca previously acknowledged that the COVID-19 vaccine may not work at all, despite efforts for progress.
University of Oxford vaccine is known as AZD1222, is based on a weakened version of the common cold virus that infects chimpanzees, while also containing the genetic material of the novel coronavirus spike protein, responsible for the disease in humans. This SARS-CoV-2 vaccine will make the immune system attack the virus if it infects the body later.
Another Vaccine
The UK government gave £41 million for developing yet another COVID-19 vaccine developed by London's Imperial College. Human trials of this vaccine will begin this week. About 300 are expected to participate in trials.
Imperial College uses RNA -- synthetic strands of genetic code -- on the basis of coronavirus' genetic sequence. It will be the first human test of a self-amplifying RNA technology.
The UK government's vaccine taskforce head said, "Their self-amplifying technology has the potential to be a real game-changer, not only for a COVID-19 vaccine but for the development of future vaccines".
