“FDA decides whether to approve emergency use as early as next month”
▲ A new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine from AstraZeneca, a British pharmaceutical company. Reuters Yonhap News
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 22nd (local time) that AstraZeneca and the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine developed by the University of Oxford in the UK have been shown to have a preventive effect of 79% in a large-scale clinical trial conducted in the United States.
AstraZeneca announced that in a clinical trial involving more than 32,000 volunteers, the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine was 79%. The company said it would prepare to request emergency use approval from the United States after further analysis of the data.
It was found that 80% of the elderly clinical participants over 65 years of age were effective. In addition, it was found to be 100% effective in preventing serious diseases, hospitalization, and death. This is higher than the result of the preventive effect (62-90%) in the UK clinical trial announced late last year. Previously, Pfizer-Bioentech vaccine and Modena vaccine were found to be effective in preventing more than 90%, respectively, in US clinical trials.
A total of 32,449 participants over the age of 18 participated in this experiment, of which 20% were the elderly aged 65. In addition, it was confirmed that the risk of blood clots did not increase in US clinical trials. AstraZeneca found no increased risk of thrombosis among 21,583 participants who received at least one vaccine.
WSJ evaluated that AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which recently suffered from cessation of lump-sum vaccination in 12 European countries due to safety concerns, has helped regain confidence with the clinical results.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will review the clinical data and will decide whether to approve the use of the vaccine as early as next month, the WSJ said.