Astra Zeneca revises US vaccine trial results after claims of outdated data
AstraZeneca has confirmed its Covid-19 vaccine as 76 per cent effective after a new US trial, which showed it to be only three per cent lower than previously reported.
US health officials criticised interim data published on Monday, which showed the vaccine efficacy rate to be at 79 per cent, but was not the most up-to-date efficacy recording.
The update may help Astra Zeneca quell doubts about the vaccine’s efficacy rate after confidence in Europe plummeted, with some countries suspending the drugs roll-out.
The vaccine, jointly developed by Astra Zeneca and Oxford University, was 100 per cent effective against severe or critical forms of Covid-19, the data said.
In adults 65 years and older, the vaccine showed an 85 per cent efficacy rate, which was up by five per cent from Monday’s data.
The latest data was based on 190 infections among over 32,400 participants, whereas the earlier interim data was based on 141 infections in February.
The data from the US trial has been submitted to the country’s independent trial watchdog, the Data Safety Monitoring Board, the drug maker said.
It plans to present the analysis for peer-reviewed publication in the coming weeks.
“The primary analysis is consistent with our previously released interim analysis and confirms that our COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in adults,” executive vice president of BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, Mene Pangalos, said in a statement.
There is still room for the efficacy results to shift slightly, Astra Zeneca said, as there are an additional 14 possible cases yet to be analysed.
Trial data from Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna puts their vaccine efficacy at around 95 per cent.