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* Britain has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine
* Astra hails important day after questions over trial
results
* Britain to prioritise first shots over boosters
(Adds detail)
By Alistair Smout
LONDON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Britain on Wednesday became the
first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine
developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca as it
battles a major winter surge driven by a new, highly contagious
variant of the virus.
AstraZeneca said the authorisation was for a two dose regime
and that the vaccine had been approved for use for emergency
supply. Britain has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine.
"The government has today accepted the recommendation from
the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
to authorise Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine
for use," the health ministry said.
Britain is already rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
In a change of approach, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and
Immunisation (JCVI) said the priority should be to give as many
people in at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing
the required two doses in as short a time as possible.
Health minister Matt Hancock said the MHRA would set out
more details on the dosing regimen later on Wednesday.
Regulatory endorsement is a welcome boost for AstraZeneca
and the Oxford team, which have been accused of a lack of
clarity about the results from late-stage trials.
"Today is an important day for millions of people in the UK
who will get access to this new vaccine," AstraZeneca Chief
Executive Pascal Soriot said. "It has been shown to be
effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied
by AstraZeneca at no profit"
Pooled results from those trials show it had overall
efficacy of 70.4%. Efficacy was 62% for trial participants given
two full doses, but 90% for a smaller sub-group given a half,
then a full dose.
Researchers said that the finding of 90% efficacy for the
low-dose/high-dose regime needed more investigation. AstraZeneca
did not specify which dose regime had been approved.
"To get out of this debacle there is no alternative to
having a significant majority of the population carrying a high
level of neutralising antibodies. With today’s announcement that
comes within our grasp," said Danny Altmann, a professor of
immunology at Imperial College London.
"I suspect this will speed things by several months. An
immune population by the spring starts to look feasible."
The pandemic has already killed 1.7 million people around
the world, sown chaos through the global economy and upended
normal life for billions since it began in Wuhan, China, a year
ago.
Britain and South Africa in particular are grappling with
new variants of the coronavirus, which the government and
scientists say are more contagious. Many countries have
responded by banning passenger flights and blocking trade.
AstraZeneca and other developers have said they are studying
the impact of the new variant but expect that their shots will
be effective against it.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout in London, additional reporting by
Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru and Paul Sandle and Kate Kelland
in London; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Jon Boyle)
