AstraZeneca’s and mRNA vaccines provide equivalent protection against COVID-19 hospitalization and deaths

 AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, the world’s most-used¹ vaccines, provide equivalent protection against hospitalization and death from COVID-19 following two doses, a new expert review of data from 79 real-world studies reveals. 

The newly reviewed data show that both the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is one of the available viral vector vaccines, and ‘mRNA’ COVID-19 vaccines, offer equivalent protection against hospitalization (91.3%-92.5%) and death (91.4%-93.3%) regardless of age, with no statistical difference.² While data available at the time of review relates to Delta and earlier variants, emerging statistics indicate similar findings on serious COVID-19 outcomes resulting from Omicron. 

Professor Guy Thwaites, Director of the Oxford Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, said: “COVID-19 vaccines have been critical to saving lives and helping Southeast Asia countries return to some normalcy over the past year. Our expert review shows that the AstraZeneca and available mRNA vaccines provide similar, high-level protection against life-threatening COVID-19. This is important information for the region’s policy makers as they consider the optimal deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in their populations over the next 12 months.”

 

Dr Rommel Crisenio Lobo, Vice Chair of the National Adverse Effect Following Immunization Committee, Department of Health in the Philippines, said: “The effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines is not about antibody levels. The ability of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing severe cases and death is the most important measure of their effectiveness. In this regard, different vaccine types including viral vector (AstraZeneca) or mRNA (Pfizer or Moderna) are all comparable.”

 

The data, reviewed by infectious disease experts from across Asia, comes from VIEW-hub, an interactive platform for visualizing global data on vaccine use and impact developed by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the International Vaccine Access Center. The platform is updated on a weekly basis to include global real-world studies on vaccine effectiveness. The 79 real-world studies reviewed included comparative effectiveness data for AstraZeneca’s vaccine and mRNA vaccines, specifically BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273. The VIEW-hub platform is not currently designed to capture the safety outcomes of these studies, preventing similar safety comparisons.

 

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is a ‘viral vector’ vaccine, which means a version of a virus that cannot cause disease is used as part of the vaccine, so if the body is exposed to the real virus later it is able to fight it. This vaccine technology has been used by scientists over the past 40 years to fight other infectious diseases such as the flu, Zika, Ebola and HIV.

AstraZeneca and its global partners have released over 2.9 billion vaccine doses to more than 180 countries, and approximately two-thirds of these doses have been delivered to low- and lower-middle income countries. The vaccine is estimated to have helped prevent 50 million COVID-19 cases, five million hospitalizations, and to have saved more than one million lives.

 

AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine (ChAdOx1-S [Recombinant], formerly AZD1222) AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine was invented by the University of Oxford. It uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein. After vaccination, the surface spike protein is produced, priming the immune system to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus if it later infects the body.

 

The vaccine has been granted a conditional marketing authorisation or emergency use in more than 125 countries. It also has Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization, which accelerates the pathway to access in up to 144 countries through the COVAX Facility.

Under a sub-license agreement with AstraZeneca, the vaccine is manufactured and supplied by the Serum Institute of India under the name COVISHIELD. 

In the Philippines, the COVID-19 Vaccine (ChAdOx1-S [recombinant]) COVAX Supply has been given ‘emergency use listing’ by the World Health Organization. Similarly, the direct supply has been granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the Philippine Food and Drug administration (FDA). This means that there is more evidence to come about this medicine. The World Health Organization and the Philippine FDA will review new information on this medicine as it becomes available, and the leaflet will be updated as necessary. Please also note the vaccine cannot be marketed or sold, advertised, and promoted.