AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine has a slightly lower efficacy rate than previously reported

AstraZeneca has discovered that its Oxford University partnered COVID-19 vaccine has a slightly lower efficacy rate than previously reported, after updated results from a Phase III trial in the US.

The trial’s primary analysis confirmed the vaccine efficacy, with a slightly lower efficacy rate of seventy-six per cent. Furthermore, the efficacy increased somewhat in the sixty-five-year and older age group, with a newly reported efficacy of eighty-five per cent. The key secondary endpoint of preventing critical or severe hospitalisation and disease due to COVID-19 remained at one-hundred per cent.

Executive vice president, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AZ, Mene Panagalos, stated: “The primary analysis is consistent with our previously released interim analysis, and confirms that our COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in adults, including those aged sixty-five years and over. We look forward to filing our regulatory submission for emergency use authorisation in the US and preparing for the roll out of millions of doses across America.”