Just after biotech companies Moderna and Pfizer posted successful results of the trials for their Covid-19 vaccine candidates, the Swedish-British biotech giant AstraZeneca has followed suit, revealing that its Covid-19 vaccine candidate which was developed in partnership with Oxford University showed an average efficacy of 70%. 

AstraZeneca conducted tests on over 23,000 participants from the UK and Brazil, whereby each candidate was aged 18 years or above and selected from ‘diverse racial and geographic groups’.

From the 23,000 participants, AstraZeneca recorded 131 Covid-19 cases in its trials. About half of the 23,000 participants were administered with the company’s vaccine candidate as is usually done while the other half were administered dummy injections. 

From the half who where administered the vaccine, 2,741 persons were given a half-dose initially followed by a full-dose at least one month part, and showed efficacy rates of 90%. The other set, 8,895 in number, were given two full doses at least one month apart and showed an efficacy rate of 62%. Combined, an average efficacy of 70% was recorded by AstraZeneca.

AstaZeneca says it’ll now apply for approval from health agencies around the globe, beginning with an Emergency Use request from the World Health Organization to ensure availability to low-income countries. The company hasn’t yet finalized its tests and expects to enroll up to 60,000 test participants globally.

Currently, AstraZeneca is also running vaccine trials in the US, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Kenya and Latin America. In the end, the company says it’s arranged manufacturing capacity of up to 3 billion vaccine doses next year, whereas its vaccine can be transported and handled at normal refrigerated conditions (2-8 degrees Celsius/ 36-46 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least six months. 

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