Results of Oxford University's Covid-19 vaccine trial will be published by the end of December

The Oxford coronavirus vaccine will inch closer to becoming publicly available before the end of this year, when its trial results are published.

Drugs giant AstraZeneca, which owns the rights to the vaccine, confirmed today it expects to release the results of stage two and stage three trials within weeks.

The figures will then be examined by the healthcare regulator MHRA before it is given the green light for use in the wider community.

The NHS is geared up to administer a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as early December, if one is proven, the chief executive said this week.

And Kate Bingham, the chairwoman of the UK’s vaccines taskforce, said yesterday inoculations had the ‘possibility of being ready before the end of the year’.

The Government is expecting to receive four million doses of the jab this year, far below the initial estimate of 30million by September 30.

Drugs giant AstraZeneca, which owns the rights to the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University, confirmed today it expects to release the results of stage two and stage three trials within weeks

The NHS may start rolling out a vaccine to people aged over 85 and front-line staff in early December, according to reports (stock)

Chief executive of AstraZeneca Pascal Soriot said: ‘We made encouraging headway in the quarter, despite the ongoing disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic.’

His comments likely refer to trials being slowed down in the summer due to a lack of coronavirus cases in the Northern hemisphere.

And he dismissed concerns that pauses in trials due to investigations of volunteers falling ill had delayed progression.

On two occasions, trial participants had developed symptoms that were feared to have been caused by the jab. And one man died of Covid-19 last month, but was reported to have been given the placebo jab.

In each event, independent reviews judged it safe to continue experiments after they were stopped for several days.

Chief executive of AstraZeneca Pascal Soriot said the results will be published in the fourth quarter

It comes as AstraZeneca retained guidance for its financial year, and said profit is set to double.

AstraZeneca presented revenue of 6.6 billion US dollars (£5.1 billion), a 3 per cent rise, despite a nearly four-fifths fall in its collaboration revenue.

The collaboration revenue drop was largely due to a strong third quarter last year for its cancer drug Lynparza, meaning Astra was measured against a high yardstick.

Mr Soriot also hailed the company’s work with diabetes medicine dapagliflozin, sold under the Farxiga brand.

FIRST COVID-19 JABS COULD BE READY FOR CHRISTMAS – BUT ‘WON’T ALLOW LIFE TO RETURN TO NORMAL’

Oxford’s coronavirus jab could still be available by Christmas – but taskforce chief says only four million doses will be available for key workers at first.

Both Pfizer and Oxford University have entered into their final stages of testing with data suggesting the jab could be deployed ‘within weeks’.

Kate Bingham, chairwoman of the government’s vaccine task force, said the inoculations had the ‘possibility of being ready before the end of the year’.

But she warned that only four million doses of the Oxford vaccine would be manufactured by Christmas – with ten million doses of the Pfizer vaccine potentially being available by January.

The estimate, which falls short of the Government’s suggestion in May that 30million doses could be supplied by September, would mean that mass deployment among NHS workers and the elderly would not yet be achievable.

Ms Bingham, the UK’s vaccine tsar, has arranged to buy six different vaccines, amounting to more than 350million doses, but there is no guarantee that any will work.

They will all also have to be submitted for approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) but it is not yet known how long this will take.

Professor Andrew Pollard, from Oxford university, agreed that there was ‘a small chance’ its vaccine would be ready before Christmas.

He said: ‘The first step is to reach the point where we can do an analysis and find out whether or not the vaccine works.

‘I’m optimistic that we could reach that point before the end of this year.’

Both Professor Pollard and Ms Bingham warned the first wave of vaccines would not be good enough to allow society to immediately return to normal, scuppering Boris Johnson’s promise that ‘life will return to normal next summer’.

The pair made the comments at a virtual House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on November 4.

When Ms Bingham was asked by MPs if a vaccine could wipe out Covid-19 next year, she said: ‘Well, to wipe out coronavirus, I think [the likelihood is] very slim.

‘But to get a vaccine that has an effect both reducing illness and reducing mortality? Very high.’

And he said the firm had advanced its collaboration with the University of Oxford to launch phase three trials for a antibody drug, which would be given to people who have a weak immune system that may struggle to fight the coronavirus.

A total of 44 of the vaccine candidates in development are at clinical trial stage.

Of these, nine are in the phase three stage of clinical evaluation and are being given to thousands of people to confirm safety and effectiveness.

There are two frontrunners in the Covid-19 vaccine race – one from German biotech firm BioNtech and US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and another being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

Both vaccines are currently in phase three clinical trials, which is when scientists assess whether people who have been innoculated are prevented from catching the coronavirus in the community.

In August, the Government announced the UK has secured access to six Covid-19 vaccine candidates in development, representing 340million doses.

Ms Bingham, the UK’s vaccine tsar, said yesterday there should be about four million vaccine doses available by the end of the year.

The first wave of vaccines would not be good enough to allow society to immediately return to normal, Ms Bingham said, scuppering Boris Johnson’s promise that ‘life will return to normal next summer’.

According to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, older adults resident in a care home and care home workers should be the first to be given any approved vaccine.

All those aged 80 and over and health and social care workers are next on the priority list.

Work has been going on behind the scenes to prepare for any potential Covid vaccine and how it could be rolled out.

GPs are gearing up to start delivering any potential Covid-19 vaccines, the head of the NHS in England said this week.

Sir Simon Stevens said family doctors will be ready to start by Christmas ‘if the vaccine becomes available’.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There are over 200 vaccines in development and we believe that we should hopefully get one or more of those available from the first part of next year.

‘In anticipation of that we’re also gearing the NHS up to be ready to make a start on administering Covid vaccines before Christmas, if they become available.

‘We reached an agreement with GPs to ensure they will be doing that, and we’ll be writing to GP practices this week to get them geared up to start by Christmas if the vaccine becomes available.’

GP magazine Pulse reported on Tuesday that family doctors are going to be told to be prepared to start vaccinating over-85s and frontline workers from early December.

The Oxford vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, uses a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) which causes infections in chimpanzees.

Other potential vaccines in phase three trials include ones by US drugs firm Moderna and biotech company Novavax.

Aside from the Oxford vaccine, a coronavirus jab in Britain is being developed by Imperial College London.

The Imperial vaccine is in phase one of clinical testing, where doses are being given to a small group of people to determine whether it is safe and to learn more about the immune response it provokes.

Pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline have also teamed up with the hope of making a Covid-19 vaccine available by the middle of next year.

The Sanofi/GSK candidate is in the phase two stage, where the vaccine is being given to hundreds of people so scientists can learn more about its safety and correct dosage.

They plan to begin phase three trial by the end of the year.