AstraZeneca may start fresh global COVID vaccine trial

Pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca may soon conduct an additional global trial to evaluate the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by it, the company’s chief executive office Pascal Soriot has said.

The trial is being considered following questions over the efficacy of the vaccine and allegation of lack of transparency in sharing data against the vaccine developers.

Soriot said the trial would be a fresh one and not an extension of the ongoing US trial. It would evaluate a lower dosage that performed better than a full amount in AstraZeneca studies.

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“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, as quoted by Bloomberg.

He said the new trial could be faster as the efficacy (of a lower dosage) has already been found to be high and would need a smaller number of patients.

The CEO, however, said there is no reason why the new trial would hold up regulatory approvals in the UK and European Union.

The vaccine which the company has developed in collaboration with Oxford University was put under scrutiny over mistakes in dosing for test cases during the trials.

While the vaccine was once the frontrunner in the race, scientists are now wary about it, thanks to scant disclosures and manufacturing discrepancies in the trials.

Scientists have also raised doubts over the efficacy of the vaccine in older individuals.

The company on Monday reported that a lower initial dose of the vaccine, followed by a full dose, yielded 90 per cent efficacy rate compared to 62 per cent for two full doses.

Head of Operation Warp Speed, a dedicated US mission to produce and deliver 300 doses of safe and effective vaccines, however, said that the test showing a high efficacy was tested in a younger population. He said the half dose was given to some people due to an error in the quantity of vaccine put into some vials and alleged that none of these details were disclosed by the vaccine developers.

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AstraZeneca, has refused to share more data ahead of a peer-reviewed analysis of the vaccine, which is expected to be published in the coming weeks.