Coronavirus vaccine update: Good news about Oxford COVID-19 vaccine may be expected today, says a new report

Spreading at a record rate with every passing day, the coronavirus positive cases tally has surged close to 13.4 million globally and the death rate is inching closer to the 6 lakh mark. To contain the highly-infectious disease, scientists and medical experts are working round the clock to develop any cure. As the world has put a united front in the battle against this pandemic, there are more than 155 vaccine candidates in various stages of trials and 23 of these, have reached the clinical (human) trials. Out of these 23 potential vaccines, three have already reached Phase 3 of clinical trials in which a large of volunteers are dosed with vaccine candidate to check its safety and efficacy against the contagion.

After Phase 1 of human trials of Moderna Inc pointed out that its vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, was able to trigger the immune system response against the virus, there is yet another positive development in the fight against the contagion. Encouraging news about the positive development about one of the frontrunners in the race to develop a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, Oxford University’s COVID vaccine candidate could be announced today.

According to media reports, ITV’s political editor is hopeful about some positive development about the AstraZeneca-backed vaccine candidate ‘AZD1222’, formally known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, which was developed by the Oxford University.

"I am hearing there will be positive news soon (perhaps tomorrow) on initial trials of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine that is backed by AstraZeneca,” Peston has written in a blog post, according to Reuters. The editor cited that a source had informed him that the vaccine is generating the kind of antibody and T-cell (killer cell) response that the researchers would hope to see. Peston also pointed out if the vaccine was proven to be effective, it could go into mass production as early as September.

Oxford University’s vaccine candidate AZD1222 has been developed by the University’s Jenner Institute and UK drug giant AstraZeneca has been given the license to mass-produce the vaccine. The vaccine candidate already reached Phase 3 of clinical trials last month in Brazil where thousands of volunteers will be dosed with the vaccine candidate to understand its safety and efficacy.

Oxford’s vaccine candidate has been developed using a weakened strain of a common cold virus, which is a non-replicating version and combining it with the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2, which is present on the surface of the novel coronavirus. Scientists aim to trigger the body’s immune response after the cells recognise the genetical material of the spike protein when the virus actually infects it. The vaccine candidate was developed within 3 months and the development of Phase 1 trials are yet to be reported by the scientists.

As per a report published in Reuters, the Lancet medical journal said on Wednesday it will publish keenly-awaited phase 1 clinical trial data on a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Astrazeneca and Oxford University on Monday.

"We expect this paper, which is undergoing final editing and preparation, to be published on Monday, July 20, for immediate release," a spokeswoman for the journal said.