AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot has claimed that Covishield, the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, is efficient to protect 95 per cent of Covid-19 patients.
Soriot told The Sunday Times that Covishield is as effective as the Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna. He went on to say that the scientists had figured out a "winning formula to get efficacy up there with everybody else".
Soriot, however, has not released any data to prove his claims. The phase-3 trials showed a 70% efficacy rate on the average of two dosing regimens, states the interim results released last month. One of the regimens of Covidsheild in which a half dose was followed by a full dose, showed a 90 per cent efficacy rate. Meanwhile, Pfizer's data has shown a 95 per cent efficacy rate and Moderna's is at 94.5 per cent.
According to the claims made by Soriot, the vaccine should be effective against the mutant strain of the Covid-19 virus that was firstly detected in London and southeast England in September. Covishield is likely to be approved by the British health regulator.
The Indian government is considering Covishiled as one of the three drugs for emergency use authorization and it will be mass-produced by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India. The two other vaccines include Pfizer and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.
The Drug Controller General (DGCI) of India is waiting for British drug regulators' clearance for the Oxford vaccine, news agency PTI reported quoting its sources. The PTI sources added that Pfizer is yet to present its data and also the Bharat Biotech has not completed the Phase-3 trials yet.
The Oxford vaccine is expected to cost $2.5 per dose while Pfizer will cost $20 and Moderna $25.
