Britain’s AstraZeneca said on Thursday it would now be able to supply more than two billion doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine, thanks to a string of manufacturing deals including one with CEPI.
The company said it reached an agreement worth $750 million with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi to produce 300 million doses of the shot, AZD1222, and another with the Serum Institute of India to supply one billion doses for low and middle-income countries.
The vaccine, previously known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and now as AZD1222, was developed by the University of Oxford and licensed to AstraZeneca. Immunity to the new coronavirus is uncertain and so the use of vaccines is unclear.
COVID-19 PROTECTION?
A Phase I/II clinical trial of AZD1222 began last month to assess safety, immunogenicity and efficacy in over 1,000 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 55 across several trial centres in southern England. Data from the trial is expected shortly.
There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for COVID-19.
Governments, drugmakers and researchers are working on around 100 programmes. Experts are predicting a safe, effective means of preventing the disease could take 12 to 18 months to develop.
Only a handful of the vaccines in development have advanced to human trials, an indicator of safety and efficacy, and the stage at which most fail.
