AstraZeneca: ‘Winning’ vaccine formula is 100% effective against severe COVID-19

AstraZeneca: ‘Winning’ vaccine formula is 100% effective against severe COVID-19 Following criticism over initial trial, pharma giant's CEO believes general efficacy will be equal to Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna; says data will be published 'at some point' timesofisrael

LONDON — The COVID-19 vaccine developed by the British drug group AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has achieved a “winning formula” for efficacy, the company’s chief executive said on Sunday.

The vaccine, currently being evaluated by Britain’s independent medicines regulator, provides “100 percent protection” against severe COVID disease requiring hospitalization, Pascal Soriot said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper.

He added he believes trials will show his firm has achieved a vaccine efficacy equal to Pfizer-BioNTech at 95 percent and Moderna at 94.5 percent.

We think we have figured out the winning formula and how to get efficacy that, after two doses, is up there with everybody else,” the chief executive said, while saying only that data would be published at “some point.”

The UK government announced on December 23 that the developers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had submitted their data to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Approval is expected to be granted Monday to roll out the shot, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported. ...