By
Bhushan Akolkar
September 23rd, 2022
The joint vaccine being developed by the duo of Oxford University and AstraZeneca Plc has reportedly produced a similar immune response in older adults as much as it does for the younger ones.
Per the report from CNBC, the vaccine dubbed AZD1222 was reportedly known to produce a lower adverse effect amongst the old adult population.
“It is encouraging to see immunogenicity responses were similar between older and younger adults and that reactogenicity was lower in older adults, where the COVID-19 disease severity is higher,” an AstraZeneca spokesman told CNBC via email, “The results further build the body of evidence for the safety and immunogenicity of AZD1222.”
The scramble for a COVID-19 vaccine has been at the forefront of most pharmaceutical company’s agendas since the outbreak of the coronavirus vaccine. With many pulling in-house resources as well as funding from several world governments in the race to develop a safe vaccine, the road for many has been tumultuous nonetheless. Despite this, many of the World Health Organization (WHO) approved COVID-19 candidates have entered human trial stages and the hope of getting a functional vaccine is getting closer.
AstraZeneca plc (NASDAQ: AZN) and Oxford are amongst the forerunners in the COVID-19 vaccine race and despite suffering about two mishaps in the trial stage, the company continues to publish the impressive performance of the yet to be approved vaccine which the company’s Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said can provide immunity against COVID-19 for up to 1 year.
AstraZeneca’s shares are up by 2.10% (GBX8,133.00) at the time of writing.
AZD1222 Vaccine Trial Misshap And Subsequent Rebounds
AstraZeneca’s own AZD1222 has reported a halt in its vaccine trial more than once as compared to the other vaccine candidates in the spotlight in recent times. As Coinspeaker reported back in September, the late-stage trial for the AZD1222 vaccine was paused as a result of an unexplainable side effect one of the participants experienced in the course of the trials.
Following this event, the vaccine trial which enrolled about 30,000 participants spread across 80 locations was stopped and resumed the clinical trial days later after receiving a green signal from the UK’s Medicines Health Regulatory Authority. The resumption in the trial was in succession and that of the United States was not reported until last week. Commenting on the resumption of the trails across all locations, Soriot noted that:
“The restart of clinical trials across the world is great news as it allows us to continue our efforts to develop this vaccine to help defeat this terrible pandemic. We should be reassured by the care taken by independent regulators to protect the public and ensure the vaccine is safe before it is approved for use.”
The company is on track to get the right approvals for the AZD1222 vaccine later this year following the analyzed results from the ongoing trials.
