The Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be given the green light by medical regulators over the next few days and will then be rolled out across the UK.
According to reports in The Sunday Telegraph the roll-out of the vaccine could start as soon as January 4th.
Speaking to the newspaper AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot believes the vaccine could be more effective than they first thought with researchers discovering the ‘winning formula’ for their vaccine saying “We think we have figured out the winning formula and how to get efficacy that, after two doses, is up there with everybody else.
“I can’t tell you more because we will publish at some point.”
The only coronavirus vaccine available in the UK at the present time is the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that has been in use since early December with more than 600,000 people having had the vaccine to date.
A government spokesperson played down the reports saying that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) must be given time to review the vaccine data.
“The medicines regulator is reviewing the final data from the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca phase three clinical trials to determine whether the vaccine meets their strict standards of quality, safety and effectiveness” they said.
“We must now give the MHRA the time to carry out its important work and we must wait for its advice.”
The UK Government has ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, with around 40 million expected to be available by the end of March.
