UK approves Oxford vaccine, raising hopes for India rollout

UK approves Oxford vaccine, raising hopes for India rollout

Panel Asks For More Data, To Meet Tomorrow

Naomi Canton & Sushmi Dey

London/New Delhi:  31.12.2020

In a big boost for the war against Covid-19, Britain on Wednesday authorised emergency use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, making it the first country to approve the vaccine that is expected to be the mainstay of India’s inoculation programme early in 2021.

The Indian regulator is expected to follow suit soon, but the subject expert committee that met on Wednesday sought more data relating to the vaccine’s immunogenicity, which will mean the emergency-use approval may take a few more days. The committee is set to meet next on Friday, raising hopes of a vaccine rollout in early January.

The committee will analyse the updated data submitted by Serum Institute of India and also the indigenous vaccine candidate of Bharat Biotech. SII has said it has already stockpiled 40-50 million shots of Covishield and is augmenting this number every week.

Reports said Covishield could become the most widely used shot given its moderate pricing of $3 to $4 a dose and that it can be transported and stored in normal refrigerators.

Brit study: Strain hasn’t caused more fatalities

Anew matched cohort study in the UK on the impact of the new variant found “no statistically significant difference in hospitalisation, case fatality” between cases with the mutated strain and earlier cases. The findings should come as a relief for India, which has reported at least 20 cases with the new strain, reports Swatee Kher. A matched cohort study is an analysis that relies on comparing sets of individuals. A spokesperson for Public Health England, which published the study, told TOI, “They have not found evidence that symptoms caused by this variant differ in nature, onset or severity.” P 9

PREPARING FOR THE VACCINE

India likely to start vaccination drive in early Jan

Pfizer-BioNTech requires freezers at minus 70° while Moderna’s needs minus 20°, and they both cost more.

The UK authorities have decided to opt for giving as many single shots as they can with the interval between shots set at between 4 to 12 weeks in a bid to reach the widest population. The plan is based on Covishield shots reporting higher efficacy in enlarged intervals.

As regards the Indian assessment, an official said, “The committee has to go through the data based on which the company has received an approval in the UK. In a situation like this, the regulator will have to ensure that the data submitted in India is co-relatable with the global data.” “The additional data presented by SII

and Bharat Biotech was perused and analysed by the SEC. The analysis of the additional data and information is going on. SEC will convene again on January 1,” the government said.

The developments indicate India’s vaccination drive will roll out early January, aiming to inoculate around 30 crore people in the first phase by July.

The OAZ vaccine becomes the second shot to be authorised for use in the UK after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine became first in the world to get authorisation on December 2. The UK government has pre-ordered 100 million doses, enough to vaccinate 50 million people in a two-shot regime. This would cover entire UK population, when combined with Pfizer vaccine.

The UK regulator recommends two standard doses 4 to 12 weeks apart of the Oxford vaccine, which will provide 70% efficacy. “Some people got second doses at different time intervals and it showed effectiveness was high, up to 80%, when there was a three-month interval,” explained Sir Munir Pirmohamed, chair of the Commission on Human Medicine expert working group.

Full report on www.toi.in

› CENTRE ASKS STATES TO CURB NEW YEAR PARTIES, P 9