The United Kingdom may approve the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine shortly after Christmas.
John Bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford University, told the BBC that Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency would approve the vaccine “pretty shortly.”
“I doubt we’ll make Christmas now, but just after Christmas, I would expect,” Bell said.
The results of AstraZeneca’s Phase 3 trials, published in the Lancet, showed that the vaccine was 62% effective for those participants who received two full doses. A smaller group of 2,700 accidentally received a small dose at first and then later received a full dose. Among those, the vaccine was 90% effective. That is too small of a sample size to establish efficacy. Scientists at AstraZeneca and Oxford said that the trials are still in progress.
Bell said that he had “no concerns whatsoever that the data looks better than ever.”
The U.K. has ordered 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
On Dec. 3, the U.K. approved the Pfizer version of the coronavirus vaccine, becoming the first country to do so. More than 137,000 people received the vaccine in the U.K. in the first week.
