Why Oxford vaccine could be India's best shot against Covid

NEW DELHI: The United Kingdom on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve the coronavirus

vaccine

developed by Oxford University-AstraZeneca. India is likely to follow suit soon.


The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest producer of vaccines, has already produced nearly 50 million doses of Covishield — the vaccine's local name in India. It is now awaiting emergency use approval from the Indian regulator, which could come very soon now that the UK has given the green light.

India is also considering emergency-use authorisation applications for vaccines made by Pfizer Inc with Germany's BioNTech and by

Bharat Biotech

.

However, all eyes are on the Oxford vaccine as it has been dubbed as India's best bet against the pandemic. Here's why:

Logistics: Some of the most promising vaccine candidates need to be stored in cold or freezing conditions — as low as -80 degrees Celsius — right until they are administered.

While the Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate has to be kept in only cool conditions, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccines need to be kept in deep freeze.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine would pose less of a logistical challenge in India as it requires storage at domestic fridge temperatures (2 to 8 degrees Celsius)

Production: One of the biggest advantages that Oxford vaccine has over the others is that it is being mass produced locally by the Pune-based Serum Institute.

The company has already stockpiled around 50 million dosages of the vaccine and aims to produce up to 100 million dosages per month by March next year.

Serum's CEO Adar Poonawalla has said that majority of the first 50 million doses will go to India.

Cost: While the exact cost of the vaccine is yet to be estimated, there have been indications from both the company and government sources that it should be economical.

In an interview in November, Poonawalla had said that the two necessary doses of the vaccine will cost under Rs 1,000.

The global average cost of vaccine is expected to be around $3.40, which is a fraction of the price of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech shots.

An official sources had earlier said that the Indian government, which will make bulk purchases of the vaccine, has negotiated a good price.

Efficacy: The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine's overall efficacy in preventing symptomatic infections was 70.4%, compared with the 95% efficacy of the shot from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

Single-dose efficacy was pegged at 52.7%, Britain said on Wednesday, in guidance to health workers, though a UK medical adviser also said that one

AstraZeneca

dose should be 70% effective after three weeks.

In India, the government sources have said that the updated data from trails submitted by Serum was also found to be "satisfactory".

Meanwhile, an expert panel in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) that met on Wednesday to consider emergency use authorisation application of Serum as well as Bharat Biotech will now reconvene on January 1 to further deliberate on the matter.
How it works: The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) in chimpanzees which has been genetically changed to stop Covid-19 replicating in humans.

It delivers genetic cargo into cells, giving them instructions how to fight SARS-CoV-2.

The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use a new technology which packs messenger RNA (mRNA) inside tiny fat droplets to instruct cells to make the spike protein.

(With inputs from agencies)