(Adds details)
By Derek Francis and Andy Bruce
Feb 6 (Reuters) - British drugmaker AstraZeneca said
on Saturday its vaccine developed with the University of Oxford
appeared to offer only limited protection against mild disease
caused by the South African variant of COVID-19, based on early
data from a trial.
The study from South Africa's University of the
Witwatersrand and Oxford University showed the vaccine had
significantly reduced efficacy against the South African
variant, according to a Financial Times report published earlier
in the day.
Among coronavirus variants currently most concerning for
scientists and public health experts are the so-called British,
South African and Brazilian variants, which appear to spread
more swiftly than others.
"In this small phase I/II trial, early data has shown
limited efficacy against mild disease primarily due to the
B.1.351 South African variant," an AstraZeneca spokesman said in
response to the FT report.
The newspaper said none of the more than 2,000 trial
participants had been hospitalised or died.
"However, we have not been able to properly ascertain its
effect against severe disease and hospitalisation given that
subjects were predominantly young healthy adults," the
AstraZeneca spokesman said.
The company said it believed its vaccine could protect
against severe disease, given that the neutralising antibody
activity was equivalent to that of other COVID-19 vaccines that
have demonstrated protection against severe disease.
The trial, which involved 2,026 people of whom half formed
the placebo group, has not been peer-reviewed, the FT said.
While thousands of individual changes have arisen as the
virus mutates into new variants, only a tiny minority are likely
to be important or change the virus in an appreciable way,
according to the British Medical Journal.
"Oxford University and AstraZeneca have started adapting the
vaccine against this variant and will advance rapidly through
clinical development so that it is ready for Autumn delivery
should it be needed," the AstraZeneca spokesman said.
On Friday Oxford said their vaccine has similar efficacy
against the British coronavirus variant as it does to the
previously circulating variants.
(Reporting by Derek Francis in Bengaluru; Editing by Timothy
Heritage, Daniel Wallis and David Gregorio)