Astrazeneca responds

Amid U.S. officials’ concerns, Astrazeneca insisted that its COVID-19 vaccine provides strong protection

Astrazeneca insisted that its COVID-19 vaccine provides strong protection even after counting additional illnesses in its U.S. study, as the drugmaker responded to concerns raised by American officials in an unusually public rebuke that threatened to further erode confidence in the shot.

In a late-night news release Wednesday, Astrazeneca said it had analyzed more data from that study and concluded the vaccine is 76 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, instead of the 79 percent it had reported earlier in the week.

Some experts called the new analysis reassuring and said the updated details didn’t look substantially different from what was announced earlier. A peek at the full data won’t come for at least another few weeks, once the Food and Drug Administration begins its own stringent review.

For now, it’s not clear if the new figures will be sufficient to repair the credibility in a vaccine that, despite being widely used in Britain, Europe and other countries, has had a troubled rollout.

Earlier this week, an independent panel that oversees the U.S. trial of the vaccine had accused Astrazeneca of cherry-picking data to tout the protection offered by its shot. The panel said Astrazeneca had left out some COVID-19 cases that occurred in the study.

The drugmaker responded that the results it reported included cases up to mid-february, and that it was preparing a fuller analysis of cases that had occurred since then — which it released Wednesday.

The U.S. study hasn’t ended, so additional COVID-19 cases could still accrue. Astrazeneca cautioned that 14 additional possible cases already are being examined and that could lead to further changes in the data.

The company intends to seek FDA clearance of the vaccine within a few weeks.