AstraZeneca And Oxford University To Develop Vaccine For Omicron

AstraZeneca to work on vaccine for Omicron: Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has announced that it will work with Oxford University scientists to build a vaccine specifically for the new coronavirus variant Omicron.

AstraZeneca now joins other vaccine producers like Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, who are also working on a vaccine for the new coronavirus variant as cases surge globally.

Together with Oxford University, we have taken preliminary steps in producing an Omicron variant vaccine, in case it is needed and will be informed by emerging data: AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca has already started taking its preliminary steps to develop the vaccine for Omicron, in order to ensure that it is available in case such need arises.

"Adenovirus-based vaccines (such as that made by Oxford/AstraZeneca) could in principle be used to respond to any new variant more rapidly than some may previously have realised," said Sandy Douglas, a research group leader at Oxford said.

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The development comes soon after a study claimed that most of the current vaccines available for COVID-19 won't be effective in preventing infection caused by Omicron. Data has suggested that only Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have shown initial success in stopping the infection, that too when reinforced with a booster shot. Vaccines by Astra Zeneca, J&J, Sinovac- which are largely distributed across the world, have not shown promising results. However, it needs to be reiterated that these claims are based on early studies. More data is yet to arrive to give us a more concrete picture.

Omicron Cases : 

The first case of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron was reported byn South Africa on November 24, 2021. “Unfortunately we have detected a new variant which is a reason for concern in South Africa,” said virologist Tulio De Oliveira, while sharing the findings.

The World Health Organisation declared it to be a "variant of concern" within two days. Omicron has over fifty mutations and has sparked worries due to its ability to escape a person's immunity system- which has been boosted by vaccines or previous infections. “Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs,” WHO had said in its early statement on the variant.

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On December 2, India reported its first two cases of Omicron in the state of Karnataka- one of these patients had no travel history. Soon after other Indian states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat etc., too reported multiple cases of Omicron. In the last three days, the number of reported Omicron cases have seen a huge surge, with tally crossing the 200 mark. Delhi and Maharashtra top the tally, reporting 54 cases each.