COVID-19 vaccine: AstraZeneca releases trial blueprint, aims for 50% effectiveness

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has released a 111-page blueprint for its COVID-19 vaccine Phase-3 trials where it has stated that the company is aiming for a vaccine with 50 per cent effectiveness. The AstraZeneca vaccine trials are currently underway in various parts of the world such as the United Kingdom, India and Brazil.

Pharma company plans early distribution for emergency use

AstraZeneca’s goal of developing a COVID-19 vaccine with 50 per cent effectiveness is the same guidance for coronavirus vaccines that has been set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Upon developing a vaccine that has the required effect, the pharma company is likely to halt early trials and seek approval for distributing of the vaccine for emergency use.

US halts AstraZeneca's vaccine trail

AstraZeneca’s 111-page report comes after the company was forced to pause its vaccine trial all over the world after two of the trials participants developed illnesses. AstraZeneca has not released much information about the nature of the illness but since then the trail has resumed in the UK after the government got the approval from the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA).

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Despite the trial resuming in many other countries, AZD1222 which is being considered as a front runner for a potential COVID-19 vaccine has not been approved to resume trials in the US. AstraZeneca’s vaccine uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein. 9 other pharma companies in the world are currently in the final phase of testing for a potential; coronavirus vaccine.

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 30 million people worldwide with the global death toll reaching over 900,000.

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