AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine shows 74% efficacy in a large global study

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine shows 74% efficacy in a large study conducted with US, Peru, and Chile participants.

UK-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine showed an efficacy of 74% at preventing symptomatic disease and a boosted efficacy of 83.5% in people aged 65 and above, according to the published U.S clinical trial results.

More than 26000 volunteers from the United States, Peru, and Chile participated in the trial. The volunteers were administered two doses of the vaccine spaced about a month apart. More than 17000 participants who received the vaccination showed no cases of severe or critical symptomatic COVID-19, but 8 of the 8500 participants in the placebo group showed acute symptomatic COVID-19. Two participants in the placebo group also passed away, but none among those who received the vaccination.

The vaccinated trial participants also showed no cases of the rare and severe blood clotting side effect called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia that has been linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The clinical trial reports were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. AstraZeneca is exploring booster doses for people who have already received two doses of either its vaccine or mRNA-based vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna.