Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla expressed joy on Twitter after Oxford University announced that the Oxford-Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine candidate, is up to 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 infection. Serum Institute of India, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume, has partnered with AstraZeneca to mass-produce the COVID-19 vaccine.

Poonawalla tweeted, “I am delighted to hear that, Covishield, a low-cost, logistically manageable and soon to be widely available, Covid-19 vaccine, will offer protection up to 90% in one type of dosage regime and 62% in the other dosage regime.” He also said that further details on this development will be provided this evening.
Earlier on Monday, the Oxford-AstraZeneca team announced that one of the dosing regimens of the vaccine might be 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 infection.

“One dosing regimen (n=2,741) showed vaccine efficacy of 90% when AZD1222 was given as a half dose, followed by a full dose at least one month apart, and another dosing regimen (n=8,895) showed 62% efficacy when given as two full doses at least one month apart. The combined analysis from both dosing regimens (n=11,636) resulted in an average efficacy of 70%,” AstraZeneca said in an official statement.

Compared to the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidates, the efficiency of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate is low but this is only after the initial reports. AstraZeneca stated that out of all the participants in the trial, 131 contracted COVID-19 but none of them were seriously affected and that there was no need for hospitalisation.

Serum Institute of India is expected to produce 1 billion doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

By BusinessToday.In
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