Oxford vaccine
WHO's Covax facility, procurement from SII to cover initial vaccine needs: Maleque
Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday said the Coronavirus vaccine will reach the country in the middle of February and the government is prepared for vaccine distribution among people.
Oxford vaccine is safe, but questions remain over efficacy
Full interim analysis of the safety and efficacy of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine – developed in partnership with AstraZeneca – has been published in the Lancet. This paper represents the most comprehensive set of results from any of the phase 3 trials of COVID-19 vaccines to date.
According to an article by Dr Paul Hunter, Professor of Medicine at the University of East Anglia in the UK, on the website of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, these are still only interim results, meaning they show only how the ongoing phase 3 trial has progressed so far. The final results may differ. But what this analysis reveals is how the Oxford team calculated its vaccine’s efficacy, which it announced in late November.
This interim analysis included 11,636 people, of whom 7,548 were in the UK and 4,088 in Brazil, Dr Hunter writes. All participants received two injections, but as has been widely reported, one of the UK groups received a half dose rather than a full dose for the initial injection. This has made analysing the effects of this vaccine more complicated than it probably will be for others in the late stages of testing.
Importantly, the evidence that the vaccine is safe is convincing, according to Dr Hunter. There were 175 severe adverse events reported in the trials, and these were actually more common in the control group (which received either saline or a meningococcal vaccine) than with those receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
Three of these events were judged to be possibly related to either the experimental or control vaccine. They included a case of transverse myelitis, a rare but serious spinal inflammatory disorder, in someone in the vaccine group, a case of haemolytic anaemia in someone in the control group, and a further person who developed a fever of over 40°C. As yet we don’t know whether this person received the COVID-19 vaccine or a control.
Across the study, ten patients became sufficiently ill with COVID-19 to require hospitalisation, but all were in the control arm.
3 crore vaccine doses to be given free: Cabinet Secretary
The government will initially provide three crore free doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the citizens of the country selecting the recipients following the protocol of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
SII files Rs100 cr lawsuit after volunteer says Oxford vaccine left him ill
The Serum Institute of India has responded to "malicious and misconceived" allegations by preparing a Rs100 crore defamation suit against a Covishield coronavirus vaccine trial participant who claimed to suffer a "virtual neurological breakdown" after being administered a dose, reports NDTV.
Russia's Sputnik V developers suggest AstraZeneca to try combining vaccines
Developers of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine on Thursday called on British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to try combining its experimental shot with the Russian one to boost efficacy.
Vaccine should be free for all: GM Quader
Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader on Wednesday urged the government to provide Covid-19 vaccine to all free of cost whenever Bangladesh gets an effective one.
With hope high for vaccine, Britain prepares to roll it out
With major COVID-19 vaccines showing high levels of protection, British officials are cautiously — and they stress cautiously — optimistic that life may start returning to normal by early April.
Oxford vaccine, for which GoB signed deal, shown to be effective
Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said Monday that late-stage trials showed its coronavirus vaccine was up to 90% effective, giving public health officials hope they may soon have access to a vaccine that is cheaper and easier to distribute than some of its rivals.
Oxford vaccine reports strong P-II results; expects efficacy data by Christmas
Following the breakthroughs in the race to deliver a coronavirus vaccine reported by Pfizer-BioNTech and then Moderna, the University of Oxford expects to release data on the efficacy of its own candidate in the coming weeks, with the latest trial results published in The Lancet suggesting it produces a strong immune response in older adults.
'Oxford vaccine to be brought as soon as getting approval'
Bangladesh has signed an agreement to collect doses of Oxford University's Covid-19 vaccine.