By
Tolu Ajiboye
December 13th, 2023
Currently, AstraZeneca vaccine trials are in the late-stages, involving about 23,000 participants. The participants span across the UK, U.S., South Africa, and Brazil.
British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Plc (LON: AZN) hopes to release its vaccine data by the end of the year. The drugmaker announced the development as it reports a strong increase in its third-quarter sales.
Apart from AstraZeneca, there are other pharmaceutical companies in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Some of the other drugmakers include Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA), and Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE).
AstraZeneca Expects to Release Vaccine Data This Year
As for AstraZeneca, the company is in partnership with the University of Oxford to develop an effective COVID-19 vaccine. Together, the pharmaceutical company and the University have developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222.
Currently, AstraZeneca vaccine trials are in the late-stages, involving about 23,000 participants. The participants span across the UK, U.S., South Africa, and Brazil.
The company said it hopes to submit the data readouts to regulators in the coming weeks:
“Results from late-stage trials are anticipated later this year, depending on the rate of infection within the communities where the clinical trials are being conducted. Data readouts will be submitted to regulators and published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.”
On the 1st of November, Reuters reported that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had accelerated reviews of AZD1222. An AstraZeneca’s spokesman revealed the progress.
As per the reviews, regulators have access to view real-time clinical data. The regulators can also have discussions with the drugmakers, which will help accelerate the approval processes for the vaccine.
Before now, AstraZeneca announced that its vaccine candidate had produced similar immune responses in older and younger adults. In an email to CNBC, an AstraZeneca spokesperson commented on the immunogenicity findings. The spokesman said the results further builds the “body of evidence for the safety and immunogenicity of AZD1222.”
On the day of the announcement, AZN upped 2% in reaction to the news.
AstraZeneca Sales Jumped in Q3
In the third quarter, which ended on the 30th of September, AstraZeneca reported that its global product sales increased by 7% to $6.52 billion. The increase excluded payments from collaborations.
Despite the unprecedented global health crisis, the pharmaceutical company managed to pull in a substantial rise in sales in the last quarter. AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said that recent gain is evidence that the company “made encouraging headway in the quarter, despite the ongoing disruption from COVID-19 pandemic.”
AZN is currently 1.31% up at premarket trading of $55.76. As analyzed by MarketWatch, AstraZeneca’s stock has increased over the past year, and since 2020 began. The company jumped over 17% in the past twelve months and nearly 11% in its year-to-date record. Also, he drugmaker climbed 1.76% over the past month and nearly 8% in the last five days.
Despite recent gains, however, AZN has declined over 2% over the last three months.