US will be unable to fast-track Oxford vaccine, No 10 insists
Downing Street pours cold water on president’s claims that he could put America first in line for the jab
DOWNING Street dismissed suggestions that Donald Trump could fasttrack a UK coronavirus vaccine for use in the US, saying Britons would be the first to benefit if the drug was a success.
According to the Financial Times, Mr Trump was reportedly considering bypassing US regulatory standards to allow the Oxford University-developed vaccine to be used in America.
However, No 10 said the vaccine would only be available once it was approved by UK regulators.
The potential vaccine will be manufactured and sold by Astrazeneca if tri- als are a success. The UK Government struck a deal with the firm for “first access” if it was approved.
A spokesman for No 10 said: “We have been clear that we will only roll out a vaccine once it is deemed safe and effective by our regulators. Astrazeneca have entered into a number of agreements with other countries, they have the global licensing agreement with Oxford, but we have been clear: once it has been found to be effective, we have signed a deal for 100million doses which means that once it is effective the UK will get first access.”
The Oxford vaccine, one of the front runners in the race for an effective immunisation against the virus, is undergoing phase three clinical trials involving around 30,000 people in the UK, US, Brazil and South Africa, with the first results expected by October.
However, it is unclear whether results will meet the threshold set by the US Food and Drug Administration that any vaccine must be tested on 30,000 people before approval is granted.
Earlier trials showed the vaccine was safe and it elicited an immune response in volunteers.
Oxford University did not comment on the reports but Astra Zeneca said it
30,000 The number of people in the UK, US, Brazil and S Africa the Oxford vaccine is being tested on as part of phase three trials
had not discussed emergency use authorisation with the US government and it would be “premature to speculate on that possibility”.
In a statement, the company added: “Late stage Phase II/III trials are ongoing in the UK and other markets globally, and we do not anticipate efficacy results until later this year.”
There are concerns that any fasttracked immunisation will dent already shaky public confidence in any potential coronavirus vaccines.
A recent survey found that up to half of the populations of countries such as the US, Germany and the Czech Republic said they would refuse to get the vaccine due to safety concerns. Earlier this month Russia announced that it had approved its Sputnik V vaccine before it had completed phase three trials – a decision described by one scientist as “reckless”.
Responding to the US announcement, Prof Danny Altmann, an Imperial College London immunologist, said: “It should be incredibly disturbing to the global medical community to see any potential attempts by any politicians, whether in Russia, the USA or elsewhere, to seek to manipulate, short-circuit or exert influence in any way over the agreed scientific protocols that are in place to carefully evaluate comparative safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of vaccines.”
Prof Angus Dalgleish, the principal of the Institute for Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapy and a consultant oncologist at St George’s, University of London, described the US claims as “an election ploy and perhaps a response to Mr Putin’s Sputnik”.
“Many vaccines may induce a good immune response and perhaps few side effects. However, the concern is what happens upon challenge [to the virus],” he said.
Prof Dalgleish said vaccines against some viruses could lead to a phenomenon called antibody-dependent enhancement. This means that rather than preventing someone from becoming ill when they are exposed to a disease, the vaccine could react with the virus and end up giving the person a very severe infection.
“It must be proven that any Covid vaccine does not do the same before approval,” he said.