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How does AstraZeneca's vaccine compare with Pfizer-BioNTech?

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John Miller, Reuters

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/news/12/30/vaccine.jpg"/></figure></div><p>ZURICH - Britain on Wednesday became the first country to approve AstraZeneca and Oxford University&#x27;s home-grown UK COVID-19 vaccine, adding an easy-to-manage shot to the arsenal of a nation desperate for pandemic relief.</p><p>Even so, scientists - and regulators in Europe, following the Brexit divorce - are skeptical, given confusion over trial results earlier that left experts questioning the robustness of the data.</p><div><strong>HOW DOES THE ASTRAZENECA SHOT&#x27;S EFFICACY STACK UP TO OTHERS&#x27;?</strong></div><p>The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine&#x27;s overall efficacy in preventing symptomatic infections was 70.4 percent, compared with the 95 percent efficacy of the shot from Pfizer/BioNTech, the other vaccine approved in Britain.</p><p>Single-dose efficacy was pegged at 52.7 percent, Britain said on Wednesday, in guidance to health workers, though a UK medical adviser also said that one AstraZeneca dose should be 70 percent effective after three weeks.</p><p>The UK regulator recommends a booster shot four to 12 weeks after the first dose, because up to 80 percent efficacy was reached with a three-month interval between shots, an official involved in the approval decision by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said.</p><p>Confusion over efficacy emerged after interim late-stage trial results announced in late November when AstraZeneca acknowledged that people in its clinical trial accidentally got different doses.</p><p>Those who received a half dose of the vaccine, followed by a full dose, were shown to have 90 percent protection, the company said initially, while two full doses offered only 62 percent protection.</p><p>Now, however, the MHRA said the half-dose regimen&#x27;s results were not borne out in analysis.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s all much more confusing because mistakes have been made, genuinely,&quot; one European Medicines Agency (EMA) official told Reuters. &quot;Mistakes that resulted in clinical data that was much more complex to interpret than Moderna&#x27;s and Pfizer&#x27;s. And on top of that the efficacy is lower.&quot;</p><div><strong>WHAT ARE THE OTHER DIFFERENCES?</strong></div><p>Technology, price and storage.</p><p>The AstraZeneca shot is a &quot;viral vector vaccine&quot;, where a specially engineered virus that normally causes chimpanzees to get the common cold delivers genetic instructions to human cells to make the spike protein jutting out from the new coronavirus&#x27;s surface.</p><p>The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use a new technology which packs messenger RNA (mRNA) inside tiny fat droplets to instruct cells to make the spike protein.</p><p>AstraZeneca pledged the vaccine would cost just a few dollars per dose and be sold without making a profit, whereas Pfizer&#x27;s vaccine costs $18.40-$19.50 per dose.</p><p>A separate mRNA vaccine from Moderna, approved in the United States, costs up to $37.</p><p>The AstraZeneca shot doesn&#x27;t require deep freezing at minus 70 degrees like the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech , and has already been produced by the millions of doses.</p><p>It can be kept in a standard refrigerator for six months.</p><p>It&#x27;s also cheaper to make, bringing hope to developing countries largely left out of the early vaccine haul.</p><div><strong>NOW THAT THE UK HAS APPROVED THE VACCINE, WILL OTHER GOVERNMENTS FOLLOW?</strong></div><p>When Britain signed off on Pfizer/BioNTech&#x27;s vaccine in early December, that pressured regulators elsewhere, and the United States and Europe followed in short order.</p><p>Moderna&#x27;s similar mRNA vaccine has also received US approval.</p><p>Britain&#x27;s move now to back AstraZeneca&#x27;s shot prioritizes getting as many people inoculated quickly, before all the answers about efficacy and optimal dosing are in.</p><p>Absent safety concerns, British regulators may be making a trade-off between waiting for perfection and making do with what they have.</p><p>&quot;A swift emergency approval implies taking the risks of a lower (or) shorter efficacy than may be reached with mRNA vaccines,&quot; said Claire-Anne Siegrist, vaccinology and immunology head at Geneva&#x27;s University Hospitals.</p><p>While an EMA official said this week the shot is unlikely to be approved before the end of January, a top German vaccine official said on Wednesday he still expected a &quot;quick decision&quot; by Europe since its rolling review process is well advanced.</p><p>The EU drug watchdog is carrying out a review for a conditional market approval, rather than the UK&#x27;s speedier emergency use approval.</p><p>India&#x27;s drug regulator is also discussing emergency approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine, being made in partnership with the Serum Institute of India.</p><div><strong>WHO WILL GET WHICH VACCINE?</strong></div><p>England&#x27;s National Health Service will not give people a choice of vaccine.</p><p>But with several now available, countries need to decide who should get which vaccine, as some people may prefer the shots with higher efficacy.</p><p>Experts said the differences between the efficacy rates are significant, prompting tough choices.</p><p>&quot;In countries where both the mRNA and the AstraZeneca vaccines would be available, whom do you decide to give the less effective vaccine?&quot; Siegrist said.</p><p>Thomas Mertens, head of STIKO, Germany&#x27;s expert panel on vaccine use, told Reuters that his group plans to address this issue &quot;in the near future&quot; as it hopes to tailor a strategy that makes the biggest impact with limited supplies.</p><p>Some experts, however, said that choice may be a luxury countries cannot afford.</p><p>&quot;At this juncture, we don&#x27;t have vaccine in sufficient quantities to reach all those who need it,&quot; said Thomas Klimkait, a University of Basel professor and researcher who is working on a Swiss SARS-CoV-2 vaccine project.</p><p>&quot;I would say at this moment that every vaccine with relatively good efficacy - that means, at least 60 or 70 percent - should be put to use, when it has an appropriate safety profile.&quot;</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F83Se6p2mtM?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>ZURICH - Britain on Wednesday became the first country to approve AstraZeneca and Oxford University's home-grown UK COVID-19 vaccine, adding an easy-to-manage shot to the arsenal of a nation desperate for pandemic relief.</p>

ZURICH - Britain on Wednesday became the first country to approve AstraZeneca and Oxford University's home-grown UK COVID-19 vaccine, adding an easy-to-manage shot to the arsenal of a nation desperate for pandemic relief.

How does AstraZeneca's vaccine compare with Pfizer-BioNTech?

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How does AstraZeneca's vaccine compare with Pfizer-BioNTech?

John Miller,

Reuters

Published Dec 31, 2020 03:20 AM PHT

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