The fight against Covid-19 stepped up a gear, after AstraZeneca (AZN) announced that it has reached initial agreements which would lead to the widespread distribution of at least 400m doses of the vaccine being developed by scientists at Oxford University.
Other supply agreements are in the offing, and the pharma giant also revealed that it has received over £1bn (£820m) from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for development, production, and distribution costs.
Part of the development costs relate to a phase three clinical trial of 30,000 participants, with a parallel study to determine its efficacy from a paediatric angle.
AstraZeneca is confident that arrangements are being put in place, which would allow it to manufacture 1bn does of the vaccine. But we should not get our hopes up. Despite the clinical imperative and the huge increase in funding, history shows us that these treatments are not developed overnight, and the Oxford vaccine is still a work in progress.
The medical view is that coronaviruses have historically been difficult to make safe vaccines for, partly because the virus attacks the upper respiratory tract, which is more susceptible to infections than many other parts of the human body.
It may concern some safety campaigners that the development of the vaccine is being conducted with excessive haste, but at least the US Federal Government has indicated that the Covid-19 vaccine will be covered under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
