Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is set to launch an additional global trial to assess the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine in older people, after current questions were raised over its level of protection in senior citizens.
The company wants the new test to confirm the 90% efficacy rate the vaccine candidate showed in an existing trial, Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said today.
Scientists claimed the highest 90% success rate of the vaccine was only found in trials of people aged under 55, raising fears it may not be effective in older people.
“Now that we’ve found what looks like a better efficacy we have to validate this, so we need to do an additional study,” Soriot said in his first interview since the data were released.
He said it would probably be another “international study, but this one could be faster because we know the efficacy is high so we need a smaller number of patients.”
Earlier this week, AstraZeneca said its late-stage trials had showed its COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective. The data initially increased world confidence that we would soon have an effective vaccine for COVID-19.
“As we communicated earlier this week, there is strong merit in continuing to further investigate the half-dose/full dose regimen,” a spokesman for AstraZeneca said.
AstraZeneca and its partner, the University of Oxford, reported on Monday that a lower initial dose of the vaccine, followed by a full dose, produced a 90% efficacy rate, compared with 62% for two full doses.
“We are further evaluating the data and will work with regulators on the best approach for further evaluation. This would add to data from existing trials which are currently being prepared for regulatory submission,” he said.
AstraZeneca’s is one of three vaccines that could be approved before the end of the year. Pfizer and Moderna, which have both created vaccines using messenger RNA, published data earlier this month that showed their vaccines were about 95% effective, and Pfizer has applied to US regulators for emergency approval.
There is added pressure on the AstraZeneca vaccine to succeed because it is easier to store and cheaper, which means many low and middle-income countries are counting on it.
Australia has confirmed advance purchasing agreements for the vaccine, as well as an agreement with the University of Queensland for their vaccine which has just begun phase-three trials.
