AZD1222 preliminary results hold more promise, both medically and for markets like India. However its essential to know why lower dosage works better.
AZD1222 vaccine developed by Swedish-British pharma major AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford can prove to be better than Pfizer-BioNTech SE or Moderna vaccine, despite both claiming to have an efficacy rate of 95 per cent.
AZD1222 preliminary results hold more promise, both medically and for markets like India. AstraZeneca and Oxford experimented with two different dosing regimens.
One regimen demonstrated an efficacy of 90 per cent when AZD1222 vaccine was administered as a half dose followed by a full dose a month later.
The second regimen showed 62 per cent efficacy when two full doses were given a month apart. The average efficacy was 70 per cent.
Even when many questions remain unanswered and researchers search for an explanation, the results allow AstraZeneca and its Indian contract manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India (SII) to approach drug regulators for an emergency licence.
However, it is essential to know why the lower dosage of the vaccine works better and how long the immunity would last after this vaccine is administered.
Why AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is more promising?
The simplest answer to this is that there is more confidence in the safety profile of the AstraZeneca vaccine.A tried and tested method has been used to prepare the vaccine.
AstraZeneca's vaccine is being developed using a 50-year old platform (a chimpanzee adenovirus vector-based antigen) that has been used in clinical trials for other vaccines.
In contrast, vaccine developers Pfizer and Moderna are using the messenger RNA (mRNA) platform, a new technology with no approved vaccine before.
Another important aspect to this vaccine is that it will be easier for developing countries like India to purchase, store and distribute it.
While the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, need deep freezers at -70 degree Celsius and -20 degree Celsius respectively, the storage requirement of AZD1222 vaccine is 2-8 degree Celsius.
India has enough capability to store and distribute the vaccine at this temperature range compared to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is much cheaper than its competitors. It pledges not to make profit on the vaccine during pandemic.
While it has kept its cost at about 2.5 dollar a dose, Pfizer vaccine costs about 20 dollars a dose and Moderna vaccine even costlier at 25 dollars a dose.
Another important accept is that this vaccine is being produced in the Pune based company, Serum Institute of India (SII) and hence could be the first to reach Indians.
Does AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine have side-effects?
AstraZeneca has said that no serious side-effects have been confirmed till date.
The common side-effects observed are temporary injection pain and tenderness, mild-to-moderate headache, fatigue, chills, feverishness, malaise and muscle ache.
According to the manufacturer, these occurred less frequently after a second dose and more often after the first dose, and could be treated with paracetamol and painkillers if required.
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