New Delhi: On Sunday (June 27, 2021) British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca along with the University of Oxford launched new trials to assess a modified vaccine against the beta version of COVID-19, which first emerged in South Africa. The booster COVID-19 vaccine will be tested on 2,250 individuals from Britain, South Africa, Brazil and Poland, reports AFP.
These 2,250 participants are those who have been fully vaccinated with two doses of the original Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine or an mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer.
this new booster covid-19 vaccineDeveloped by AstraZeneca, known as AZD2816. According to the report, this new booster COVID-19 vaccine has also been designed using the same premise as the main AstraZeneca shot, but with minor genetic changes.
“Testing booster doses of existing vaccines and new variant vaccines is critical to ensuring that we are best prepared to stay ahead of the pandemic coronavirus,” said Andrew Pollard, principal investigator and director of the University of Oxford Vaccine Group. The report quoted Oxford as saying.
UK experts said that even though the country has had a successful vaccine rollout programme, it is unknown to experts as to how long the protection lasts in a person’s body.
“This study will provide important evidence on whether further doses, including ‘tweaks’, may be needed against new virus variants in the future,” said Maheshi Ramasamy, Principal Investigator, Oxford Vaccine Group. year.
As per reports, existing vaccines are available against COVID-19 Supposedly less effective than the beta version.
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