Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Nov 02, 2025

Oxford, WHO scientists say more data needed on AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine trials

Oxford, WHO scientists say more data needed on AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine trials

More data is needed from AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine trials beyond what was presented in a press release, experts from the WHO and Oxford University said.

More data will be needed from AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine trials to determine the drug’s safety and efficacy following concerns from experts in the U.S., scientists from the University of Oxford and the World Health Organizations said on Friday.

“There’s always a problem in announcing scientific results by press release, and that is that you don’t have all the data out there and people aren’t able to really look and think about the data properly,” Sir John Bell, the Regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Friday.

Shares of AstraZeneca dipped this week after the company announced interim results from its coronavirus vaccine trials on Monday. The British pharmaceutical giant said its vaccine, which it’s developing alongside Oxford, was 70% effective after it combined results from two different dosing regimes.

One smaller group of people, all under the age of 55, received an unintentionally lower dose of the vaccine followed by a full dose, and a larger group of people received two full doses of the vaccine. The vaccine was found to be 90% effective in the group that received the smaller dose while the larger group showed only 62% effectiveness.

Some U.S. experts, including Moncef Slaoui, chief of the White House’s Operation Warp Speed, said they were concerned about the differing ages between the two groups. Amid those concerns, Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, told Bloomberg on Thursday that the company will likely begin a new study to examine the lower dosage regime.

“The full data will be published in the medical journal so people can examine it. Taking snippets of data is not a helpful way to make an analysis of what’s actually going on,” Bell told CNBC on Friday.

Other British government ministers and experts have also backed AstraZeneca’s vaccine, noting that drug regulators who have more information on the vaccine’s late-stage clinical trials will ultimately have the final say. Britain asked its medicine regulator on Friday to assess the vaccine for a temporary supply, which means the vaccine could be distributed in the country before the end of the year.


That process could take longer in the U.S., however, amid recent concerns. Bell told CNBC that he predicts the UK could be “substantially vaccinated” by spring of next year.

Kate O’Brien, director of immunization, vaccines and biologicals at WHO, agreed with Bell during the organization’s press briefing earlier on Friday, saying that there’s only a “limited amount that can be said in a press release” and that more information, including how well the vaccine builds an immune response, is needed.

“It’s difficult to weigh in on this,” O’Brien said from the WHO’s Geneva headquarters. “From what we understand about the press release, there is certainly something interesting that has been observed, but there are many reasons that could underlie the differences that were observed.”

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist, concurred and said AstraZeneca’s trial figures “are still too small to really come to any definitive conclusions.” Less than 3,000 trial participants were in the group that was given the smaller dose of the company’s vaccine compared with more than 8,000 in the larger group.

“If we are to explore this hypothesis of having perhaps a better efficacy with the lower dose, then it would need a trial,” Swaminathan said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
King Charles Relocates Andrew to Sandringham Estate and Strips Titles Amid Epstein Fallout
Two Arrested After Mass Stabbing on UK Train Leaves Ten Hospitalised
Glamour UK Says ‘Stay Mad Jo x’ After Really Big Rowling Backlash
Former Prince Prince Andrew Faces Possible U.S. Congressional Appearance Over Jeffrey Epstein Inquiry
UK Faces £20 Billion Productivity Shortfall as Brexit’s Impact Deepens
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Eyes New Council-Tax Bands for High-Value Homes
UK Braces for Major Storm with Snow, Heavy Rain and Winds as High as 769 Miles Wide
U.S. Secures Key Southeast Asia Agreements to Reshape Rare Earth Supply Chains
US and China Agree One-Year Trade Truce After Trump-Xi Talks
BYD Profit Falls 33 % as Chinese EV Maker Doubles Down on Overseas Markets
US Philanthropists Shift Hundreds of Millions to UK to Evade Regulatory Uncertainty in Trump Era
Israeli Energy Minister Delays $35 Billion Gas Export Agreement with Egypt
King Charles Strips Prince Andrew of Titles and Royal Residence
Trump–Putin Budapest Summit Cancelled After Moscow Memo Raises Conditions for Ukraine Talks
Amazon Shares Soar 11% as Cloud Business Hits Fastest Growth Since 2022
Credit Markets Flooded with More Than $200 Billion of AI-Linked Debt Issuance
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Says China Made 'a Real Mistake' by Threatening Rare-Earth Exports
Report Claims Nearly Two Billion Dollars in Foreign Charity Funds Flowed into U.S. Advocacy Groups
White House Refutes Reports That US Targeting Military Sites in Venezuela
Meta Seeks Dismissal of Strike 3’s $350 Million Copyright Lawsuit
Apple Exceeds Forecasts With $102.5 Billion Q3 Revenue Despite iPhone Miss
Israel's IDF Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi Admits to Act Amounting to Aiding Hamas During Wartime (Treason)
Shawbrook IPO Marks London’s Biggest UK Listing in Two Years
UK Government Split Over Backing Brazil’s $125 Billion Tropical Forest Fund Ahead of COP30
J.K. Rowling Condemns Glamour UK Feature of Nine Trans Women as 'Men Better at Being Women'
King Charles III Removes Prince Andrew’s Titles and Orders His Departure from Royal Lodge
UK Finance Minister Reeves Releases Email Correspondence to Clarify Rental-Licence Breach
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
×