YUGE Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine shows an average 70% effectiveness in preventing the virus

AstraZeneca said its vaccine, developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, was assessed over two different dosing regimens.
One showed an effectiveness of 90% when trial participants received a half dose, followed by a full dose at least one month apart.
The other dosing regimen showed 62% efficacy when given as two full doses at least one month apart.
Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, said the development marked an “important milestone” in the fight against the global health crisis.

LONDON — British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said Monday an interim analysis of clinical trials showed its coronavirus vaccine has an average efficacy of 70% in protecting against the virus.

It comes after a string of encouraging vaccine results in recent weeks, following late-stage trial readouts from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Pfizer and Moderna reported preliminary results showing that their respective Covid vaccines were around 95% effective.

It is hoped a Covid vaccine could help to bring an end to the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 1.3 million lives worldwide.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, was assessed over two different dosing regimens.

One dosing regimen showed an effectiveness of 90% when trial participants received a half dose, followed by a full dose at least one month apart. The other showed 62% efficacy when given as two full doses at least one month apart.

The combined analysis from both dosing regimens found average vaccine effectiveness of 70%. No hospitalizations or severe cases of the disease were reported in participants receiving the vaccine.

[link to www.cnbc.com (secure)]