WHO “AstraZeneca vaccine, insufficient clinical data to evaluate efficacy”

Input 2020.11.28 20:49 | Revision 2020.11.28 20:50

“The difference in the size of the two experiments and the immune effect … Needs additional data”

The World Health Organization (WHO) said: “Clinical data are still too small to evaluate efficacy” on the new vaccine against coronavirus infection (Corona 19) developed by the global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

CNBC said on the 27th (local time) that Sumya Swaminatan, WHO chief scientist, said this through a press conference. He added that further clinical trials should be conducted with more people.

AstraZeneca announced on the 23rd that its vaccine had a 70% immune effect following the analysis of initial Phase 3 clinical trial data. The clinical trial was conducted by administering the vaccine twice, the first and second, every month.

The first group of less than 3000 people received only half of the first dose in the first dose and the intact dose in the second dose due to the AstraZeneca error. The immune effect was measured at 90%.

For the second group of over 8000 people, when the experiment was performed according to the original plan without errors, the immune effect was 62%, showing a difference from the first.

AstraZeneca expects that the first dose of the vaccine, which was a mistake, will have a higher immune effect, but experts pointed out that the difference between the two experiments was large and questioned the vaccine’s effectiveness. “It is very difficult to compare the two groups,” said Swaminatan’s CEO.

Earlier, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Sorio said, “Since we have found a way that shows a better effect (only half the dose in the first dose), we need to prove it.”