The push to produce a vaccine for COVID-19 seems to have taken another leap recently. British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca stated on Monday that AZD1222, the technical name of the potential Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has triggered positive immune responses in adults.
What We Know:
- AstraZeneca, the company responsible for developing an already promising vaccine in collaboration with the University of Oxford, has also said that a variety of responses to the vaccine among the elderly were also found to be lower.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the older portions of populations, including anyone else regardless of age with preexisting medical conditions, are most likely to get hit harder by the virus than anyone else. These people usually develop serious illnesses and other reactions upon contracting COVID-19. The announcement of these results makes it clearer that a vaccine can be successfully developed and distributed by the end of 2020.
- According to CNBC, an AstraZeneca spokesman has said “It is encouraging to see immunogenicity responses were similar between older and younger adults and that reactogenicity was lower in older adults, where the COVID-19 disease severity is higher.”
“The results further build the body of evidence for the safety and immunogenicity of AZD1222,” the spokesman continued.
- Many drugmakers and research centers are consistently working towards trying to deliver an efficient vaccine that will hopefully stomp out the pandemic that’s loomed over the world for much of 2020. At this point, COVID-19 has claimed over 1.15 million lives.
- Over the past few months, several countries and companies have attempted to create vaccine candidates which are currently in test trials, according to the WHO. However, there are only a few that have reached later stages and much less received actual approval.
AZD1222 is still being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. Many believe it will end up being the undeniable winner of the race to create a vaccine and secure regulatory approval. AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soirot has already noted that this vaccine has the ability to provide protection against the virus for at least a year.
