"Coronavirus: Oxford vaccine triggers immune response"

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www.clarin.com

Revés para Brasil: India postergó el envío de dos millones de vacunas de AstraZeneca contra el coronavirus

El avión estaba preparado para partir este viernes, pero las autoridades del país asiático avisaron que todavía "es muy temprano" para abastecer a otras naciones.
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15 January 2021
Setback for Brazil: India postponed shipment of 2 million AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines
The plane was ready to leave this Friday, but the authorities of the Asian country warned that "it is still too early" to supply other nations....

The order for the vaccines had been made by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro himself to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Before the announcement of the Indian government, sources from the Ministry of Health told CNN Brazil that the departure of the plane to Mumbai to transport the immunizers was postponed.

The Brazilian Health Minister, Eduardo Pazuello, had announced that the AstraZeneca vaccines, together with the Chinese Coronavac, will be part of the first phase of immunization that can begin on January 20....
 
UK Man said:
Good news. Wouldn't it be nice if it were available here? Fat chance!!
Click to expand...
I think eventually this vaccine will be available here as well. Perhaps sometime in the second half of 2021?
 
www.infobae.com

Vacuna Oxford-AstraZeneca: los detalles de la etapa final del suministro de las 22,4 millones de dosis para Argentina y las 150 millones para la región

Infobae entrevistó a Agustín Lamas, presidente de AstraZeneca para el Cono Sur y a Agustina Elizalde, directora médica del laboratorio que por primera vez explicaron los próximos pasos de la vacuna que está desarrollando el binomio científico AstraZeneca - Oxford y cuyo principio activo...
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17 January 2021
Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine: details of the final stage of supplying the 22.4 million doses for Argentina and the 150 million for the region.
Infobae interviewed Agustín Lamas, president of AstraZeneca for the Southern Cone and Agustina Elizalde, medical director of the laboratory, who for the first time explained the next steps of the vaccine being developed by the scientific binomial AstraZeneca - Oxford and whose active ingredient will be manufactured by the Argentine biotech hub mAbxience and will be massively available in the first half of 2021. The revealing data that this vaccine keeps in the interval between the two doses....

....Additionally, and regardless of the formal regulatory processes, we are sharing all the results through publications in prestigious journals in order to provide transparency and demonstrate the scientific quality of all the data arising from our vaccine trials. Thus, it became the first candidate vaccine against COVID-19 whose Phase III results were published in a major peer-reviewed scientific journal (Nde laR: The Lancet). We also reported when we had to take a temporary pause in our Phase III trial....

What news do we have today regarding the arrival of the vaccine to Argentina and the region?
-Agustín Lamas: Today the vaccine against COVID-19 is a reality for Argentina and for the region that it integrates. Since the second quarter of 2020, we have worked tirelessly to understand what was the best supply alternative and to be able to bring the vaccine immediately to our country. Today we are moving towards the final steps of the manufacturing and supply process, and allowing our country and Latin America to have an effective, safe, easy to store (2-8 degrees) and tremendously accessible non-profit vaccine for the duration of the pandemic. The production plan is underway and the vaccine will be available during the first half of the year.

-Which of all the efficacy data that circulated on the vaccine are the real ones? Can the vaccine be given to older adults? Can you give a single dose?
-Agustina Elizalde: Argentina was the first country in the world to approve the emergency use of the vaccine after the United Kingdom. The indication approved by ANMAT is for people over 18 years of age in a regimen of two doses separated by an interval between 4 and 12 weeks.
This scheme demonstrated an efficacy of 70.4% in the prevention of cases of symptomatic COVID, without serious cases or hospitalizations.

There is a good level of protection after the first dose with an exploratory analysis showing an efficacy of 73% at 22 days after receiving a single dose of vaccine. Preliminary data have also shown a greater efficacy of approximately 80% at 14 days after the second dose, when the vaccine is given with a longer dose interval of up to 12 weeks between doses.

If the time before giving a second dose can be lengthened to about 2-3 months, instead of 1 month, many more people can be vaccinated initially. The vaccine provides a good level of protection against symptomatic disease after a first dose.

With the second dose, which can be administered up to 12 weeks later, complete protection against severe forms and hospitalizations is provided, increasing efficacy. Additionally, more data will continue to be accumulated as part of the next final analysis and additional follow-up to assess the efficacy of the vaccine over a longer period of time.

What Dr. Elizalde explained to Infobae is revealing: according to preliminary data studied by AstraZeneca, there is scientific evidence that shows that the wider the interval, between the first and second dose, it can mean greater effectiveness. There will be 11, 2 million people vaccinated with the complete scheme from the agreement between the Argentine Government and the laboratory of Anglo-Swedish origin. And as Infobae learned, the 22.4 million agreed doses will arrive in Argentina directly from Mexico (distribution in vials).

-Why then is half a dose followed by a full dose not recommended?
-Lamas: The analysis of the preliminary data suggests that the greater efficacy of the vaccine could be due to the time interval between doses; and not whether the participants received the full dose or half the starting dose. The indication approved in the UK and ANMAT, consistent with the global AZ strategy, is two full doses 4 to 12 weeks apart. This strategy provides a good level of protection after the first dose, which increases after the second dose. Importantly, the vaccine has been shown to protect against serious illness and hospitalizations....
 
www.pagina12.com.ar

Parte hacia México la sustancia activa de Oxford/AstraZeneca para envasar el primer lote de vacunas | En agosto, Alberto Fernández había anunciado el acuerdo y que las primeras dosis llegarán a Argentina en marzo

El laboratorio argentino mAbxience envía la materia prima y la planta mexicana de Liomont se encargará de ultimar los detalles del proceso productivo.
www.pagina12.com.ar www.pagina12.com.ar
17 January 2021
In August, Alberto Fernández had announced the agreement and that the first doses will arrive in Argentina in March. Oxford/ AstraZeneca's active substance leaves for Mexico to package the first batch of vaccines. The Argentine laboratory mAbxience sends the raw material and the Mexican plant in Liomont will be in charge of finalizing the details of the production process.

This week the local mAbxience laboratory will send the first batch of active substance to Mexico –which is equivalent to 6 or 7 million doses– so that the Liomont laboratory completes the production process: packaging, labeling and distribution throughout the region. This is how the procedure will be during the coming months and it will be good to get used to it: Argentina will send, in succession, the raw material of the vaccine so that the Latin American neighbor can complete the procedure. From mAbxience they operate in advance and ensure that they are already through the fourth batch of production. In fact, they estimate, in the short term, to reach a delivery rate such that it approaches 30 million monthly doses.

The equation is simple: the local plant should cover what they can pack from Mexico (1 million daily doses). In this framework, “it is very likely that our country will have an interesting portion of the final production. Of those six million per batch, Argentina should receive at least two million in each delivery. Imagine that we receive 300 thousand from Sputnik and we are very happy, when the millions from AstraZeneca come, the joy will multiply ”, a source who knows closely the productive kitchen of the vaccine tells Página / 12. If so, towards the end of winter and early spring, Argentina could have a large part of its population vaccinated. Although the initial agreement involved the production of 150 million doses, from a recent extension in the contract, mAbxience would be in a position to produce 30 million more doses, bringing it to 180 million.

On August 13, Alberto Fernández announced the news. The AstraZeneca Laboratory had signed an agreement with the Slim Foundation of Mexico to produce between 150 and 200 million doses of the vaccine to be distributed throughout Latin America. There, the mAbxience domestic laboratory of Grupo Insud (owned by Hugo Sigman) would have a very special role, since it would be in charge of manufacturing the active substance that would then travel to Mexico to complete its packaging and distribution phases to the countries of the region, with the exception of Brazil. In the Latin American neighbor, the shares would be borne by the pharmaceutical company Liomont. What the president formulated as a promise, finally, becomes reality in a timely manner. Through this agreement, as of March and in the following months Argentina will be able to access 22.4 million doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. It is worth noting that the technology received emergency authorization from ANMAT at the end of December.

The contribution of the Slim Foundation (created by the Mexican millionaire who bears the same last name) is key because it allows access to more reasonable prices. Unlike other vaccine options that cost $ 10-20, the AstraZeneca variant is estimated to cost $ 3-4. In this way, it democratizes the conditions of access to a technology as sensitive as a vaccine in the midst of a pandemic. In a scenario of infections and deaths that is intensifying around the globe, having more doses soon is decisive because every day that the procedure is delayed, new deaths accumulate and could be avoided....

....It is worth noting that the raw material will travel under custody because, although a minority, there is no shortage of anti-vaccine groups that can endanger the arrival at the destination of the drug and, in effect, public health. Once the first batch is there, Liomont will thaw it, dilute it (since it comes out of Argentina very concentrated), pack it in sterile vials, label it and distribute it in the region from March. From the Mexican laboratory they announced that, thanks to their machinery and installed capacities, they are able to produce a million daily doses. In Argentina, although there are bottling plants, they do not work with the scale in which the Mexican does. The goal is for the production started in November to be oiled and automatic.

The characteristics of the vaccine
It is based on an adenovirus - a pathogen that usually infects chimpanzees - and was genetically engineered so that it has the ability to express the Sars CoV-2 Spike (S) protein as an inactivated viral vector. Once inoculated, it produces the protein and the body - by not recognizing it as its own - generates the defenses that will later protect the individual against future infections. Thanks to the fact that the adenovirus was intervened, in addition, it is not capable of replicating in the body. Therefore, it has an adequate security profile and does not produce collateral damage, with few exceptions.

Specifically, although the drug is sufficiently assimilated to the coronavirus, it does not cause any danger to people who, on the contrary, deploy the body's defenses (not only antibodies but also T lymphocytes), which neutralize and then eliminate infected cells . This is how it generates a very strong immune memory. The scheme - like the vast majority of vaccine platforms that are in the running and already being distributed - foresees two doses because this makes the level of antibodies generated higher. The efficacy achieved by the AstraZeneca variant reached around 70%, a considerable percentage if one takes into account that the influenza vaccine that Argentines apply every year is around 60%. In the last time, from AstraZeneca, they announced the accomplishment of complementary clinical tests with the purpose of increasing this percentage in the next months.

The scheme - like the vast majority of vaccine platforms that are in the running and already being distributed - foresees two doses because this makes the level of antibodies generated higher. The efficacy achieved by the AstraZeneca variant reached around 70%, a considerable percentage if one takes into account that the influenza vaccine that Argentines apply every year is around 60%. In the last time, from AstraZeneca, they announced the accomplishment of complementary clinical tests with the purpose of increasing this percentage in the next months.

To the 300 thousand doses of Sputnik that arrived on Saturday, the remaining ones will be added to complete the 20 million, the million from the Chinese vaccine made by the state company Sinopharm, the 22.4 million from AstraZeneca/Oxford that will arrive in March and the 9 million that will be received from the Covax platform, the global access fund that is led by the World Health Organization and whose creation endorsement was signed by 172 nations. Finally, the Government does not rule out unlocking the misunderstandings with Pfizer or closing, in the coming days, an agreement for the arrival of Moderna.
 
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