Has a new hope emerged in these trying times?
As the highly contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus continues to rampage all across the world, a supposed ray of hope has emerged in the form of positive news.
According to the company’s released preliminary data, AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria vaccine, when given as a third booster dose is showing an increased amount of antibodies against the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Here are the details of the supposed discovery:
What is AstraZeneca?
AstraZeneca is a pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology company based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It was founded on April 6, 1999, and its current CEO is Pascal Soriot.
AstraZeneca’s innovative medicine is supplied and used all over the world. It is also one of the leading companies working on a cure against the coronavirus and it has also produced one of the most popular and effective vaccines worldwide, Vaxzevria.
Here’s a fun fact, the Serum Institute of India has made a sub-license agreement with AstraZeneca. According to the agreement, the Vaxzevria vaccine is manufactured and supplied as Covishield in India.
Will A Third Dose Work?
AstraZeneca performed trials on their vaccine and discovered through preliminary results that Vaxzevria is generating a higher antibody response against the Omicron variant.
If the vaccine is given as a third booster dose, it will generate higher antibodies in response against many variants of COVID-19 including Omicron, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants.
These results were observed in individuals who were vaccinated with Vaxzevria or an mRNA vaccine earlier.
Statements from the Authorities
Adar Poonawalla in a tweet said: “This is encouraging news, as per Professor Sir Andrew J Pollard, chief investigator and director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, new data from ongoing Astrazeneca/Oxford vaccine trials has shown that three doses give good protection against Omicron.”
This is encouraging news, as per Professor Sir Andrew J Pollard, chief investigator and director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, new data from ongoing Astazeneca/Oxford vaccine trials has shown that three doses give good protection against Omicron. https://t.co/kiXbbooFxc
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) January 13, 2022
In another statement, the Executive vice-president of AstraZeneca, Mene Pangalos said: “Vaxzevria has protected hundreds of millions of people from COVID-19 around the world and these data show that it has an important role to play as a third dose booster, including when used after other vaccines.”
Andrew J Pollard, Oxford Vaccine Group’s chief investigator, and director at the University of Oxford said: “These important studies show that a third dose of Vaxzevria after two initial doses of the same vaccine, or after mRNA or inactivated vaccines, strongly boosts immunity against COVID-19.”
He also claimed that the vaccine from the combined efforts of Oxford and AstraZeneca is highly suitable as an immunity booster for the human population and the first two doses have already demonstrated how effective they are.
AstraZeneca claims that it has continued to progress the regulatory submissions to countries all over the world to use their vaccine as a third booster dose considering the ongoing urgency of the pandemic and the desperation for a solution.