San Francisco Chronicle

Formal review of new vaccine sought in U.K.

-

The British government said Friday it has formally asked the country’s medicines regulator to assess whether a coronaviru­s vaccine developed by AstraZenec­a and Oxford University should be authorized for use.

The step comes amid questions about preliminar­y results from trials of the vaccine, after the company and the university acknowledg­ed that the most encouragin­g part of their findings stemmed from a dosing error.

U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he had asked the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to determine whether the vaccine “meets rigorous safety standards.”

It’s the second vaccine candidate to reach the formal assessment stage in Britain, following a shot developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. A third vaccine from U.S. firm Moderna is not far behind.

The British government has ordered 100 million doses of the OxfordAstr­aZeneca vaccine, and plans to start distributi­ng it in December if it gains approval.

Oxford and AstraZenec­a reported Monday that their vaccine appeared to be 62% effective in people who received two doses, and 90% effective when volunteers were given a half dose followed by a full dose. They later acknowledg­ed that a manufactur­ing issue had resulted in “a half dose of the vaccine being administer­ed as the first dose” to some participan­ts.

AstraZenec­a has said it plans to conduct a new global clinical trial to assess the vaccine’s efficacy but does not expect that to delay regulatory approval in Britain or the European Union — though the U.S. Food and Drug Administra­tion may take longer.

 ?? Pascal Pochard-Casabianca / AFP via Getty Images ?? Protesters in Bastia on the French island of Corsica gather Thursday around coffins representi­ng the suffering of restaurant workers during the shutdown of cafes and bars amid the virus resurgence.
Pascal Pochard-Casabianca / AFP via Getty Images Protesters in Bastia on the French island of Corsica gather Thursday around coffins representi­ng the suffering of restaurant workers during the shutdown of cafes and bars amid the virus resurgence.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States