AstraZeneca announced today that its COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated statistically significant efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in a U.S. trial. AZD1222, developed in a collaboration between London-based AstraZeneca and Oxford University, was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization, according to a news release. Efficacy was consistent across ethnicity […]
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca vaccine offers little protection against South Africa SARS-CoV-2 variant
The ChAdOx1 COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed between AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is not effective against the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa, according to a recent study published in NEJM. In a five-month study involving HIV-negative adults, 23 of 717 placebo recipients developed mild-to-moderate COVID-19 while 19 of 750 vaccine recipients did. Based […]
Denmark is investigating reports of blood clots after AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccinations
The Danish Medicines Agency announced that it is investigating the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after reports of blood clots. In collaboration with the European Medicines Agency, the Danish Medicines Agency launched the investigation as it considers there to be a reason to look into the circumstances further after cases in which citizens developed blood clots shortly […]
Amid controversy, Biden cancels Emergent Biosolutions visit
The White House scrapped plans to hold a meeting today at a Baltimore-based vaccine plant run by Emergent BioSolutions following an exposé from The New York Times. The Biden administration also announced plans to conduct an audit of the Strategic National Stockpile after the publication of the article, which described how the biopharmaceutical company lobbied […]