AstraZeneca aims to accelerate adaptation of vaccine for new Covid variants

AstraZeneca aims to cut the time needed to mass-produce a version of its Covid-19 vaccine adapted to new virus variants to six to nine months.

The comments from the pharmaceutical group, which developed its jab in partnership with Oxford university, come as the world is locked in a race between vaccine development and new viral variants.

Last week, a limited study in South Africa showed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine had reduced efficacy against milder disease caused by the variant first discovered in that country, prompting the government to delay its rollout and focusing global attention on the need to adjust inoculations to deal with mutations.

“You have to adjust the vaccine as you go,” like for flu shots, said Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive.

Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s head of research and development, said work on the new variants “started weeks and months ago”. AstraZeneca aimed to start new clinical trials “in the spring” after selecting the most suitable among a number of variant-targeted versions it was working on.

Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, had previously said a new version of the vaccine could be available by the “autumn”, but Thursday was the first time AstraZeneca had set a clear timetable to tweak the jab. AstraZeneca would hit the new target “by utilising existing clinical data and optimising its established supply chain”, it said.

AstraZeneca restated that it believed its existing vaccine would still be effective against hospitalisation or death linked to the 501.V2 variant, but reiterated that the South African study had not tested the shot against severe disease. AstraZeneca did not say when data on the capacity of the existing jab to prevent severe disease linked to new variants would be available.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine — which is based on technology that requires cell cultures to be grown for weeks — is less easy to adapt than rival jabs from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna using messenger RNA.

AstraZeneca’s Pangalos has previously said mRNA vaccines “probably have a 4-6 week advantage” in the adaptation race over other types of jabs.

Moderna has announced the testing of a booster shot and reformulated jab to target the variant 501.V2, which was first detected in South Africa, after studies showed its initial shot was less effective against it.

BioNTech/Pfizer said their vaccine was slightly less effective in laboratory studies using pseudo-viruses with some mutations from the variant, but it has not published results against the variant itself.

Studies using the Johnson & Johnson and Novavax vaccines, which were developed with technology similar to Oxford/AstraZeneca’s, showed them to be effective in reducing severe disease and death caused by 501.V2.

Decisions on vaccine approval rest with national health authorities, but the World Health Organization gave Oxford/AstraZeneca a boost on Wednesday by recommending the use of the vaccine in all adults, including in places where new variants may already be in circulation.

AstraZeneca did not respond to questions about its monthly projected supplies of the vaccine to EU member states, which has been a contentious issue, but said it expected to be able to deliver 200m doses a month globally by April.

Large parts of the globe, including lower-income countries, have banked on the inoculation to emerge from the pandemic.

The news on the vaccine came as AstraZeneca on Thursday reported that revenues for 2020 climbed 10 per cent to $26.6bn. Core earnings per share rose 18 per cent to $4.02. New medicines represented more than half of its total revenue, said the drugmaker. London-listed shares gained as much as 1.9 per cent on Thursday morning.