AstraZeneca’s logo is reflected in a drop on a syringe needle in this illustration taken November 9, 2020.
DADO RUVIC/Reuters
British regulators have approved a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca which scientists say will massively boost efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unlike the vaccines currently in use — made by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna — the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored in regular refrigerators and it has been priced far lower. Scientists say that will make it easier to distribute the vaccine to doctors’ offices, seniors’ homes and throughout developing countries. AstraZeneca said it will produce three billion doses on a not-for-profit basis throughout the pandemic. The company added on Wednesday that it could soon start producing two million doses per week.
The British government has bet heavily on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and ordered 100 million doses, enough to cover 50 million people since it requires two doses. The first batch is set to arrive in the country this week and inoculations will begin on Monday. Initial doses will be given to as many people as possible with the second dose coming up to 12 weeks later.
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The approval was “truly fantastic news, and a triumph for British science,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter Wednesday. “We will now move to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible.”
The U.K. has already vaccinated around 800,000 people with the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine. But that vaccine must be stored at -70C while the Oxford-AstraZeneca drug can be kept in fridges at between 2-8C. It also costs around $5 per dose compared to $26 for the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine and $43 for Moderna’s.
The approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency comes at a critical moment in the U.K. The country has been struggling with a rampant surge in COVID-19 infections which scientists believe could be linked to more contagious variant of the virus that has emerged in recent weeks. That variant has spread to dozens of countries, including Canada, despite bans on British travellers.
The number of daily cases in Britain hit record high of more than 53,000 on Tuesday and hospital admissions have reached levels not seen since the pandemic began last March. Much of the country has been put under near total lockdown and on Wednesday Health Secretary Matt Hancock is expected to announce further restrictions.
“The regulator’s assessment that this is a safe and effective vaccine is a landmark moment,” said Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group. “Though this is just the beginning, we will start to get ahead of the pandemic, protect health and economies when the vulnerable are vaccinated everywhere, as many as possible as soon possible.”
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been in development since last January. It uses a weakened version of a common cold virus that causes infections in chimpanzees but is harmless to humans. Once modified with the genetic sequencing of the spike protein found in COVID-19, the vaccine prompts the human immune system to react.
That’s different from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines which involve messenger RNA, or genetic coding that instructs the vaccinated person’s cells to produce the viral protein, or antigen. That gives the immune system a preview of what the real virus will look like, without causing illness, and it can build defences.
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Approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has taken longer than the other two vaccines because of complications in the testing process.
Initially the vaccine was supposed to be administered in two full doses, like the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. However, a mistake in the early trials saw only half a dose administered at first followed by a full second dose. That combination proved to be more effective, yielding 90 per cent protection as opposed to 62 per cent for the two-full doses. By contrast the two other vaccines showed 95 per cent efficacy during trials.
The MHRA has approved the two-full dose regime of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and said that further data from the trials showed that it was 70 per cent effective after the initial dose. It was 80 per cent effective after the second dose, the agency added on Wednesday.
Prof. Sir Munir Pirmohamed, chair of the MHRA’s Commission on Human Medicine Expert Working Group, said that an analysis of data from the half-dose, full-dose combination found that the results had not been borne out.
June Raine, chief executive of the MHRA, said data showed that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was effective 21 days after the first dose. She added that initial doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech offered enough protection that the second doses could be administered up to three months later.
“The public and everyone who’s listening can be absolutely confident that the scientific rigour of our assessment has been as we would normally do it according to guidelines and standards,” said Dr. Raine. “These are difficult times for so many of us. But vaccines such as this one have the potential to save many lives and will see us come through.”
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Dr. Pirmohamed also said the MHRA was not recommending mixing the vaccines — for example giving an initial dose of one vaccine and a second dose of another — but that studies were underway to see if that would be possible in future.
Public health officials and scientists said approving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was a critical moment in the pandemic. “At a time when we see the pandemic accelerating beyond our control, a rapid, efficient vaccination programme with good population coverage is our only way out,” said Daniel Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London. “With two vaccines now in the roll-out and very substantially more doses, it starts to look realistic that this could be achievable by the spring or early summer.”
How the Oxford-AstraZeneca drug works
16/16
14/14
11/11
The Oxford University and AstraZeneca Covid-19
vaccine can prevent up to 90 per cent of people
contracting coronavirus when it is administered as
a half dose followed by a full dose
at least one month apart
Spike
protein
Spike protein:
Gene is cut from
Sars-CoV-2 genome
Virus
genome
Gene: Inserted into DNA
of adenovirus which acts
as vector in vaccine
Adenovirus:
Unable to
cause disease
Vaccine: Induces spike
protein antigen – triggers
antibody immune response
Antibodies
Human immune
system: Produces
antibodies against
spike proteins
Vaccine: Can be
stored in refrigerator
at 2-8°C. Two doses
of vaccine are
required
graphic news, SOURCE: Reuters; Oxford
Vaccine Trial; University of Oxford
16/16
14/14
11/11
The Oxford University and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine
can prevent up to 90 per cent of people contracting
coronavirus when it is administered as a half dose
The Oxford University and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine can prevent
up to 90 per cent of people contracting coronavirus when it is administered
as a half dose followed by a full dose at least one month apart
Spike protein
Adenovirus:
Unable to
cause disease
Virus genome
Spike protein:
Gene is cut from
Sars-CoV-2 genome
Gene: Inserted into DNA
of adenovirus which acts
as vector in vaccine
Antibodies
Vaccine: Induces spike
protein antigen – triggers
antibody immune response
Human immune
system: Produces
antibodies against
spike proteins
Vaccine: Can be
stored in refrigerator
at 2-8°C. Two doses
of vaccine are required
graphic news, SOURCE: Reuters; Oxford Vaccine Trial; University of Oxford
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TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
