The director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, Andrew Pollard, said that late-stage trial results for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine are expected before Christmas.
Asked about when the efficacy data for the vaccine, AZD1222/ ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, is expected, Pollard told BBC Radio: “We haven’t quite got to that point yet. We’re obviously not going to rush that.”
“We’re getting close, and it’s definitely going to be before Christmas, based on the progress,” he added.
New findings published in The Lancet today demonstrated that the AZ/Oxford vaccine induced a similar immune response in older and younger adults in a phase 2 study.
The vaccine comprises a modified chimpanzee adenovirus – a weakened version of a common cold virus.
At a parliamentary Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee meeting earlier this month, Pollard said he is “optimistic” that data for the potential COVID-19 shot will be available ‘before the end of the year”.
When asked about timelines for regulatory review and distribution, however, Pollard said the timings for both processes are “not entirely clear to me at the moment”.
So far, two companies developing COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, have revealed analysis from late-stage studies of their respective candidates.
Yesterday, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that new and final analysis from a phase 3 study of their vaccine, BNT162b2, suggests it is 95% effective in preventing COVID-19.
The companies added that they now expect to submit a request ‘within days’ to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an emergency use authorisation (EUA) based on the final safety and efficacy data.
Moderna posted similarly encouraging results, reporting that its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine scored a 94.5% efficacy rate, based on an interim analysis from its phase 3 COVE study.
Following the positive Moderna data readout, the UK government secured access to five million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, announcing that the vaccine doses it has secured could be delivered to the UK as early as Spring 2021, with the potential to secure more doses next year.