⦁ U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that the vaccine for coronavirus being developed by AstraZeneca has reached phase three clinical trials in the country and is very close to being finalised for approval.
⦁ The phase 3 trial is being implemented as part of Operation Warp Speed,
⦁ a multi-agency collaboration led by the US Health and Human Services,
⦁ which aims at accelerating the development and manufacturing of medical countermeasures for COVID-19 and
⦁ Delivering 300 million doses of an effective vaccine by January 2021.
⦁ AstraZeneca is one of the leaders in the race to develop COVID-19 vaccine. Other companies that have COVID-19 vaccines in phase 3 trials include Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc.
⦁ The National Institute of Health separately announced that Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating an investigational COVID-19 vaccine known as AZD1222
⦁ Will enroll approximately 30,000 adult volunteers at 80 sites in the US to evaluate if the candidate vaccine can prevent symptomatic COVID-19.
⦁ The UK-based global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is leading the trial as regulatory sponsor.
⦁ Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group have developed AZD1222. The candidate vaccine was licensed to AstraZeneca for further development.
