New Delhi: After Pfizer and Moderna, now the University of Oxford has announced that the vaccine candidate developed in collaboration with British pharma company AstraZeneca has shown 70% effectiveness. According to an official release, interim results show that the vaccine candidate ChAdOx1 nCoV-2019 (AZD1222), is 90 percent effective in half dose.

The Oxford vaccine is made from a virus, which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus), that has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to grow in humans.  The results are from an interim analysis of clinical trials of AZD1222 in the UK and Brazil and are based on two different dose regime.

According to an official statement by AstraZeneca while ‘one dosing regimen showed vaccine efficacy of 90% when AZD1222 was given as a half dose, followed by a full dose at least one month apart, and another dosing regimen showed 62% efficacy when given as two full doses at least one month apart.’

But the combined analysis from both dosing regimens resulted in an average efficacy of 70 percent. The vaccine candidate has not had any serious safety events.

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“These findings show that we have an effective vaccine that will save many lives. Excitingly, we’ve found that one of our dosing regimens maybe around 90 % effective and if this dosing regime is used, more people could be vaccinated with a planned vaccine supply. Today’s announcement is only possible thanks to the many volunteers in our trial, and the hard-working and talented team of researchers based around the world,” said Professor Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and Chief Investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial in a statement.

The vaccine cheaper cost and simple supply chain may make it more preferred Covid-19 vaccine

"The vaccine’s simple supply chain and our no-profit pledge and commitment to broad, equitable and timely access means it will be affordable and globally available, supplying hundreds of millions of doses on approval,"said Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer

Oxford will now support AstraZeneca in submitting both the interim Phase III efficacy data and the extensive safety data to all regulators across the world, including in the UK, Europe, and Brazil for independent scrutiny and product approval, including for emergency use.

Recently, US-based pharma companies Pfizer Inc had revealed the final analysis of clinical-trial data that showed that its Covid-19 vaccine was 95% effective against the disease. Similarly, Moderna Inc has said that it's 94.5 percent effective in preventing Covi-19.