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LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Britain is on track to make
COVID-19 vaccines widely available by next spring after the shot
developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca was up to
90% effective in trials, the head of the university's Jenner
Institute said on Monday.
The encouraging late-stage trial results were the third
published among the seven vaccine candidates Britain has
ordered, following on from Pfizer/BioNTech and
Moderna earlier this month.
Britain has secured 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca
shot, 40 million of the Pfizer vaccine and 5 million of
Moderna's candidate.
"I think we are on track for the timeline ... to start
getting this vaccine rolled out from December," Adrian Hill,
director of Oxford University's Jenner Institute that developed
the vaccine, told Reuters.
He said high-risk groups would receive the vaccine before it
was rolled out to everyone in spring.
"I think that could be done. It's going to be an enormous
effort ... hopefully there will be vaccine available for all
adults, but that's likely to be springtime rather than in
January," Hill said.
An AstraZeneca executive earlier said there would be enough
drug substance for 20 million vaccine doses in Britain by the
end of the year, with 4 million doses ready for use.
The vaccine is administered in two shots, so more people
could be inoculated if the initial shot ends up being a half
dose, the regimen that has proved more effective in trials.
Britain expects 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine this
year, but its cold-storage requirements pose logistical
challenges, while Britain won't even receive any Moderna
vaccines until next spring.
Oxford has said it aimed to make a COVID-19 vaccine that
would be widely available around the world, helped by
AstraZeneca's manufacturing and distribution capacity, while
using a technology that avoids onerous storage requirements.
"We are going to be probably close to getting to that 3
billion dose target next year with just our vaccine," Hill said.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Additional reporting by Kate
Kelland; Editing by David Clarke)
