The COVID vaccine being developed by
Oxford University with the help of AstraZeneca and Italy's IRBM
is well tolerated, above all in the elderly, and induces an
immune protection similar to that seen in young adults,
according to stage two trials published in The Lancet on
Thursday.
The second phase trials were conducted on 560 healthy adults,
240 of them over the age of 70.
Researchers will have to wait for the results of stage three
trials to say whether the vaccine protects against infection by
SarsCov2, the article said.
That stag of trials is still ongoing.
Some results of stage three testing were published early in the
non-scientific press.
Oxford University said the next step was to verify the duration
of the protection afforded by the vaccine.
Project coordinator Andrew Pollard said it was crucial to test
the vaccine on the elderly, who must have priority in any future
vaccination.
Sarah Gilbert, co-author of The Lancet study, said it was vital
to confirm the effectiveness of the vaccine in elderly patients
with other pathologies.
Italy is starting phase three of trials of the new COVID
vaccine.
Tests will start at Modena hospital and university, with the
first inoculations beginning on December 1.
Cristina Mussini, head of Modena's infectious disease centre and
university researcher, said they hoped to have the vaccine by
April next year.
Piero Di Lorenzo, the president of the IRBM Pomezia centre that
is working with Oxford University on the vaccine for Astra
Zeneca, has said that the first doses could be ready even
earlier, by the end of December.
AstraZeneca is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical
and biopharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Cambridge
and its R&D concentrated in three strategic centres: Cambridge,
Gothenburg and Gaithersburg.
IRBM Science Park is an Italian firm, founded in 2009 at Pomezia
just south of Rome, operating in the sector della molecular
biotechnology, biomedical science and organic chemistry.
photo: IRBM HQ at Pomezia
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