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[이데일리 이준기 김보겸 기자] AZ announced on the 22nd (local time) that the controversial AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine had a preventive effect of 79% in a phase 3 clinical trial conducted in the United States. It was higher than the previous clinical effect (70.4%), and it was effective at all ages, and the risk of clot formation, which was concerned, was not detected. Following the European Union (EU) health authorities that’AZ vaccine is safe’, AZ vaccine vaccination in each country is expected to speed up.
According to foreign media such as AP, AFP, and Reuters, AZ explained in a press release that day, and explained that it showed 100% effect in preventing the progression to severe illness requiring hospitalization. For the elderly over 65 years old, the effect was 80%, which was higher than the overall average. 32,449 people participated in this phase 3 test. Of these, more than 20,000 were vaccinated and the rest were compared through placebo (placebo). Most of all, the AZ vaccine received attention as it showed no possibility of clot formation.
The medical community has been hoping this test will end controversy over the effectiveness of the AZ vaccine. According to AZ’s announcement at the end of last year, the average immunity effect of the AZ vaccine during the clinical trial was 70.4%, which was less than that of Pfizer (95%) and Modena (94.5%). In this regard, Andrew Pollard, who leads the vaccine group at Oxford University, which co-developed the vaccine with AZ, said, “It showed remarkable efficacy against new subjects.”
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), an EU health authority, held an extraordinary meeting of the Drug Surveillance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) on the 18th and concluded that “vaccination is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots.” It is expected that the AZ vaccination rate in each country will be accelerated without finding any other thrombosis problems in the phase 3 trial of Korea.
The UK, the country of developing AZ vaccines, has already resumed vaccinations immediately after the EMA’s decision, and European countries, such as Germany, France, and Italy, that had withheld AZ vaccinations joined the ranks last week. Taiwan, which is regarded as a model country for quarantine, also started vaccinating the AZ vaccine produced in Korea on the same day. On the same day, Indonesia also resumed AZ vaccination.
The ransom price of the AZ vaccine is also rising. Representatively, the UK and EU are fiercely fighting to secure the AZ vaccine. The EU said it would not export the AZ vaccine produced in the Netherlands to the UK. According to the earlier EU Commissioner of the European Commission Urzula Pon der Leien, he ordered the initiation of Article 122 of the Treaty of the EU, saying, “It is possible to tighten restrictions on the export of vaccines to countries with higher vaccination rates than the EU without selling the vaccine to the EU.” . This provision has never been invoked since the oil shock of the 1970s. In response, the UK also took off. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace pointed out that “building a wall with the UK only hurts both the EU and its citizens. If the EU reputation is damaged, it will not recover in a short period of time.”
Currently, the EU vaccination rate is only 12%, well below the UK (43%) and the US (37%). In the UK, 27.6 million people, more than half of the adult population, have been vaccinated at least once.
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