The coronavirus vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and licensed to pharma major AstraZeneca could be available in the markets as early as October. According to Sarah Gilbert who leads the research team at the University of Oxford, the potential vaccine has an 80 per cent probability of being effective in stopping people who are exposed to the novel coronavirus from developing Covid-19. "She has said she could know by September," reported Bloomberg Businessweek.
Her statements come as welcome news because it has been widely estimated that the development and supply of coronavirus vaccine may take up between 12-18 months.
The advanced vaccine candidate is currently in Phase III, or final-stage, trials involving thousands of people in Brazil, South Africa, the UK, and, soon, the US. Gilbert’s team has leapfrogged other vaccine contenders to the point where it will likely finish vaccinating subjects in its big 10,000-person efficacy trial before other candidates even start testing on that scale, Kate Bingham, chair of the UK government’s Vaccine Taskforce, told a UK parliamentary committee in early July. “She’s well ahead of the world,” Bingham said. “It’s the most advanced vaccine anywhere.”
However, the developers have yet to report Phase I results, which would show whether it is safe and whether or not it induces an immune response. Reportedly, the vaccine developers said this month they were encouraged by the immune response they had seen in trials so far and were expecting to publish Phase 1 data by the last week of July.
"We expect this paper, which is undergoing final editing and preparation, to be published on Monday, July 20, for immediate release," Reuters quoted a spokeswoman for The Lancet medical journal as saying.
The statement comes amid reports that a "positive news" on initial trials of the University of Oxford's potential COVID-19 vaccine candidate could be announced on Thursday (July 16).
More than 100 vaccines are being developed and tested around the world to try to stop the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed hundreds of thousands and ravaged the global economy.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca has signed agreements with governments around the globe to supply the vaccine should it be cleared for use. Interestingly, Serum Institute of India (SII) entered into a license agreement to supply one billion doses of the Oxford University vaccine candidate against Covid-19 to middle and low income countries, including India.
WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan had last month stated that Oxford University-AstraZeneca was the leading vaccine candidate in the world.