AstraZeneca announced today that preliminary data from a clinical trial of its vaccine against COVID-19, of Vaxzevria, showed that the formulation elicited a greater antibody response against the Omicron variant and others — including Beta, Delta, Alpha, and Gamma — when administered as a third booster dose.
The increased response, even to the Delta variant, was detected by a blood test of people who had previously been vaccinated with either Vaxzevria or an mRNA vaccine, the pharmaceutical company said, adding that it would submit the data to international regulators as a matter of urgency. for booster doses.
AstraZeneca has developed the coronavirus vaccine in collaboration with researchers at the University of Oxford, and laboratory studies conducted last month by the university already found that a three-dose regimen of Vaxzevria increases blood levels of .
Today's brief announcement, which does not include specific data, is the first AstraZeneca to make about the possible protection that Vaxzevria provides as a booster dose after two doses of either the same vaccine or another mRNA vaccine.
Vaccines based on mRNA technology are manufactured by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna.
The company said its findings "reinforce the growing body of evidence supporting Vaxzevria as a third booster dose regardless of tried-and-tested vaccination schemes."
A major UK clinical trial in December found that the AstraZeneca vaccine boosted antibodies when given as a booster dose after the initial vaccination with either its own or Pfizer vaccine, but before the Omicron explosion.
However, research at the time concluded that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines provided a greater increase in antibodies when administered as a third dose.
AstraZeneca and its manufacturing partners have supplied more than 2,5 billion doses of the vaccine worldwide, although this has not been approved in the US, while BioNTech-Pfizer has supplied approximately 2,6 billion doses.
Source: RES-EAP