Britain grants emergency approval to coronavirus vaccine by Oxford and AstraZeneca

LONDON - Britain on Wednesday became the first country to grant approval for a homegrown coronavirus vaccine from the University of Oxford and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, adding a second shot to the fight against a surging outbreak, driven here by a new, highly infectious variant of the virus.

British Health Minister Matt Hancock said clinical trials have proved the new vaccine is safe and effective, but he did not say how effective.

Although Hancock called the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine a "game-changer," Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which approved the vaccine for distribution, did not immediately present its data.

Researchers from the Oxford-AstraZeneca team earlier this month published interim results from clinical trials that showed their vaccine was 62% effective for volunteers who were given two full doses and 90% effective for a smaller subgroup who received a half dose followed by a full dose.

Doubts have been raised over how robust the half-dose data is. The Oxford scientists said they were studying why the different regimens produced such different results.

Britain badly needs another vaccine to meet its ambitious goal to inoculate most of the country's population by the spring.

With the virus spreading rapidly, and two-thirds of Britain now in near-lockdown, Hancock said Wednesday that the goal is to inject as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, with the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine. A second dose will be given later, within three months. The idea is that the first dose provides enough protection to warrant waiting longer than the usual 21 days between shots.

"In the data, the scientists and the regulators have found the immunity comes from around two weeks after the first dose, and then the second dose should be taken up to 12 weeks later to give you that long-term protection," Hancock said.

"This means we can spend the first three months vaccinating people with the first doses, getting them that immunity, getting people protection quicker than we possibly could have done otherwise," he said.

Hancock said having two vaccines means the government now has "a very high degree of confidence that we can be out of this by spring."

Britain earlier this month approved the coronavirus vaccine from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the German company BioNTech, becoming the first Western country to authorize mass inoculations.

The United Kingdom has injected some 600,000 people with the Pfizer vaccine, but experts say the government must ramp up quickly, to inoculate 2 million people a week - 10 times the current rate - if it wants to beat back the pandemic quickly.

Britain has ordered 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The company says it can deliver 40 million doses by the end of March, with a million doses arriving almost immediately.

The government plans to start inoculating people with the AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday, with residents of nursing homes, health-care workers and people over 80 at the front of the line. There are plans to deliver the vaccine in mass immunization centers, such as sporting arenas and convention halls.

"Today is an important day for millions of people in the U.K. who will get access to this new vaccine," said Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca. "It has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is supplied by AstraZeneca at no profit."

Soriot told BBC Radio that his company can deliver 2 million doses a week and that the vaccine produces a "good level of protection" after the first of two doses.

If Britain gives the second dose two to three months after the first, "that enables us to protect many more people," Soriot said.

He said scientists believe the AstraZeneca vaccine will be effective against the new variant detected in Britain. Clinical trials, however, were carried out before new mutation was established in the population.

Public health officials say there is much to recommend the new vaccine, as it costs as little as $3 a dose, is relatively easy to manufacture at huge scale and does not require special handling or deep freezers to store or transport.

The Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective but requires special handling and must be kept in special freezers and dry ice at extremely low temperatures.

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The health secretary conceded that the need to keep the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in special freezers has "made it more challenging to get out, especially to some of the smaller care homes, and those limitations aren't there for this Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the approval of the new vaccine was "truly fantastic news - and a triumph for British science," adding that "we will now move to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible."

The news comes amid a spike in coronavirus cases driven by the new variant of the virus, which appears to be 50% more transmissible. British hospitals currently have more coronavirus patients than they did when the first wave gripped the country in April.

On Tuesday, Britain recorded more than 53,000 cases - the highest in a single day. Over 40% of the population is living under the highest tier of restrictions, and the government is expected to announce new restrictions later in the day.

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Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told the BBC that the pandemic this year was "like being in a blizzard."

“We’ve been really struggling uphill through snow drifts with this icy wind in our faces, and I think this morning we do have some respite with this good news and the warmth that that brings,” he said.