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The biotech companies Biontech and Moderna have submitted, and now the British vaccine manufacturer Astra Zeneca has followed suit.

Right at the start of the week, the pharmaceutical company published new data from its third clinical study, which is still ongoing.

According to this, the vaccine achieves an effectiveness of 90 percent and is thus only slightly behind that of Biontech and Moderna.

These had recently announced an effectiveness of 95 and 94.5 percent for their vaccines.

However, AZD1222, the candidate from Astra Zeneca, is based on a different technology and is therefore not easily comparable with the products from Moderna and Biontech.

The preliminary results from studies in Great Britain and Brazil are significant, however, as they show that global vaccinations on a large scale and thus the beginning of the end of the pandemic in the coming year are increasingly likely.

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"The most important message was certainly when one of the companies in the race was the first to report that their vaccine against Covid-19 was working," said Sarah Gilbert, Oxford University study director, who is developing the vaccine with Astra Zeneca, alluding to the Success report from the Mainz company Biontech from the beginning of the month.

The fact that several vaccines have now shown such a high level of effectiveness in studies is a stroke of luck for everyone.

Effectiveness of about 70 percent

“One manufacturer alone cannot supply the whole world.

It's a question of capacity.

This is not a race between companies, but one against the virus, ”added Astra-Zeneca boss Pascal Soriot.

But despite all assurances: The pressure for the team from Astra Zeneca and Oxford University must have been great to keep up with their own good news after the numerous reports of success from the biotech manufacturers.

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On average, the company's own vaccine has so far prevented infections with the virus with an effectiveness of 70 percent in the ongoing clinical study, said Astra Zeneca.

Two different vaccination regimens were tested as part of the study.

In the first case, the full dose was administered twice with an interval of at least one month; in the second case, half the dose was inoculated first and the full dose four weeks later.

It has been shown that the combined vaccination with first half and then the full dose with an effectiveness of 90 percent performed significantly better than the other scheme.

An effectiveness of only 62 percent was given for this.

“We can't quite explain why that is so,” said vaccination specialist Gilbert.

Presumably the immune system was better activated by the first weaker dose.

Three billion cans in planning

The findings also have implications for the distribution of the vaccine.

It will be able to deliver 40 million vaccine doses in the UK in the first quarter of next year.

This means that 80 million people could now be vaccinated if the regulatory authorities grant approval, the manufacturer announced and emphasized: "We will continue to work with the regulatory authorities to get the vaccine to people as quickly as possible."

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Astra Zeneca plans to have 700 million vaccine doses ready for sale worldwide by the end of March.

By the end of the year this could grow to three billion, with monthly production at full capacity of between 100 and 200 million cans.

“We have created multiple supply chains to ensure timely, broad and equitable access for both high and low income countries.

In 2021 we will be able to make three billion cans available worldwide, of which over 50 million are earmarked for Germany alone, ”the company announced at WELT's request.

The EU Commission ordered a total of 300 million cans for Europe in August, with the option of 100 million more.

For global sales, Astra Zeneca has also teamed up with the Serum Institute in India, which will also manufacture an additional billion cans, and another partner in Russia will also produce one billion.

In Brazil, too, production has already started through a partner company.

The group cooperates with a total of 20 partners worldwide.

This indicates that the vaccine from Astra Zeenca and Oxford University should become a vaccine for the world if approved.

Especially since the manufacturer wants to market the vaccine at a price of three to four dollars, and thus only calls up a fraction of what Biontech and its US partner Pfizer or the US company Moderna are asking.

Moderna boss Stéphane Bancel had confirmed in an interview with WELT AM SONNTAG at the weekend that the price for his own vaccine should be between 25 and 37 dollars.

According to the EU Commission, the price for the vaccine from Biontech in Europe is around 15 euros.

Both vaccines also follow a vaccination schedule with two pricks.

No special cooling necessary

"It was important to us to create a vaccine that wasn't just for the wealthy," said Louise Richardson, vice president of Oxford University.

"We wanted to make sure that we didn't benefit from the pandemic and that our vaccine would be available worldwide."

Sales at refrigerator temperatures are also unproblematic and a great advantage, especially in emerging and developing countries.

Above all, the vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer does not yet meet this criterion: the vaccine can only be stored for a long time at arctic minus 70 degrees Celsius.

The team from Germany and the USA - unlike its two competitors Moderna and Curevac - have not yet presented corresponding studies that would possibly also allow higher temperatures.

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While the three manufacturers mentioned are using a new method of vaccine production with the so-called mRNA technology for their vaccines, the product from Astra Zeneca and Oxford University is a so-called vector-based vaccine.

A well-researched carrier virus is converted so that it can serve as a gene ferry for the actual vaccine antigen.

Compared to traditional vaccines, the process is still relatively new, but it has already been used, for example, in the search for a vaccine against Ebola.

Astra Zeneca and Oxford University use a weakened version of an adonovirus from chimpanzees as a vector for their Covid-19 vaccine.

However, all vaccines that are currently in the running have one thing in common: So far, no one can say how long they will protect against infection with Covid-19.

Corresponding data are not yet available - not enough time has passed since the vaccine search began.