AstraZeneca said on Monday its COVID-19 vaccine could be as much as 90% effective, giving the world's fight against the global pandemic a new weapon, cheaper to make, easier to distribute and faster to scale-up than rivals.
The British drugmaker said it will have as many as 200 million doses by the end of 2020, around four times as many as US competitor Pfizer. Seven hundred million doses could be ready globally as soon as the end of the first quarter of 2021.
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"This means we have a vaccine for the world," said Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford University vaccine group that developed the drug.
The vaccine on average prevented 70% of COVID-19 cases in late-stage trials in Britain and Brazil but the success rate rose to 90% if the vaccine was administered as a half dose followed by a full dose. The efficacy was 62% if the full dose was given twice, as it was for most study participants.
No serious safety events were confirmed, the company said.
AstraZeneca's shares fell 4%, on track for their worst daily performance in six-months, as investors perceived the efficacy data as disappointing compared with rivals. Pfizer and Moderna , which reported that their vaccines prevented around 95% of cases, had set the bar for success sky-high.
The AstraZeneca shot does, however, have some advantages over offerings from US rivals.
The drug's cost to governments works out at just a few dollars a shot, a fraction of the price of shots from Pfizer and Moderna, which use a more unconventional technology.
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