An initial statement from AstraZeneca on their COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222 indicates that data confirming efficacy would be available by late December. The Phase III trial on the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine commenced in August and was conducted in Brazil, South Africa, the UK and the U.S. Initial evaluation confirms that the vaccine was immunogenic in elderly recipients. This is considered to be an important criterion of an effective vaccine.  The preliminary report on safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine based on Phase 1/2 evaluation was published in The Lancet in July*.

Development of the vaccine commenced in January 2020 and the product is based on simian adenovirus as a vector for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The mode of stimulating antibody is distinct from the mRNA technology used for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna products.

The UK Medicines and Health Care Products Regularity Agency (equivalent to the U.S. FDA) has initiated a review of the AstraZenaca-Oxford vaccine.  AstraZeneca proposes to produce two billion doses of AZD1222 while awaiting approval.  Of this total, four hundred million doses will be distributed in the U.S. and the UK with the remainder for low-income nations.  The vaccine was developed partly with Warp Speed funding of $1 billion.

Folegatti, P.M. et al. Safety and immunogenicity of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2: A preliminary report of a Phase 1/2, single-blind, placebo controlled trial. The Lancet.doi.org/10.106/S0140-6736(20)31604-4 July 20, 2020