Scientific team will recommend government buys AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine

By Evie Andreou and Annette Chrysostomou

The advisory committee on coronavirus plans on suggesting to the health ministry to order the Covid-19 vaccine Oxford University is working on with AstraZeneca, it emerged on Tuesday.

Committee member, professor of microbiology and molecular virology at the University of Nicosia, Petros Karayiannis told the Cyprus News Agency it seems the vaccine in question was emerging as safe and effective.

Karayiannis explained that the effects of this vaccine were two-fold. During tests it created antibodies and activated part of the immune system called cellular immunity, which killed off infected cells with minimal side-effects.

He said the team would suggest the Cypriot government purchase a quantity of the vaccine initially for the vulnerable groups and the elderly. Karayiannis noted that 200,000 would be enough and that for the whole population they would need 900,000.

The professor said the vaccine would be available in the UK in early November, and ready for export to other countries three weeks later.

He expressed hope that the health ministry would place an order. The company involved, AstraZeneca, is well-known and appears to be cooperating with Brazil and Russia to produce the vaccine, meaning that the production could be in larger quantities, he said.

He added that Britain has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine. The company announced that if the vaccine was licensed as soon as possible after August, when all its studies will be completed and the file will be submitted to the regulatory authorities in Europe and America, it will be ready to provide it.

News of vaccine results are being discussed among the scientific community.

Another expert told the Cyprus Mail on Tuesday that the results of the first two phases of trials of at least two vaccines are very promising, but some questions remain, such as how to produce large quantities and how to distribute them.

Associate professor of the pharmacy programme at the University of Nicosia Christos Petrou referred to the published results of phase I and II studies, of Oxford University/AstraZeneca and the Chinese CanSino Biologics.

“They both used a similar method to develop the vaccine and reported good results regarding antibodies and T-cells which are involved in bringing about an adaptive immune response. This justifies the beginning of clinical trials.”

During phase III, the safety and efficacy of the vaccines will be tested. Phase III studies involve randomised and blind testing in several hundred to several thousand patients.

“There are some unknown factors, such as the longevity of the protection, the effect on different ethnic groups and what the vaccine does to older adults,” Petrou explained.

It is hoped that at least one of them will be out by the end of November, the associate professor said, adding he believes there will be more than one eventually. As he said, two have now reached phase three, but more will follow in the months to come.

So far, two others, Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech, using a different platform, also show promising results while more are working on reaching phase three.

“The big question is how to produce large quantities, but the companies have said they will be able to do that. The EU has announced it will prepare an agreement with the companies to get a certain amount for the European Union countries and will aim to ensure equity. Of course, some patients will have priority.”

An announcement on Monday said Oxford, working with AstraZeneca, aims to make some two billion doses of the vaccine available globally, through partnerships with manufacturers in several countries, by early next year.

German biotech firm BioNTech and U.S. drugmaker Pfizer on the same day reported additional data from their experimental Covid-19 vaccine that showed it was safe and induced an immune response in patients.

American biotechnology company Moderna is expected to start a 30,000-person study to prove the shots are effective at stopping coronavirus infection at the end of July.

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