Astra’s Covid-19 Vaccine Won Approval, But How Good Is It?
A shot developed by the drugmaker and the University of Oxford just gained clearance in the U.K. Here’s what you need to know.
Photographer: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images
Sam Fazeli, a Bloomberg Opinion contributor who covers the pharmaceutical industry for Bloomberg Intelligence, answered questions about the approval in the U.K. Wednesday of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford. It follows the shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, which was cleared earlier this month and has already been rolled out in the U.K., U.S. and Europe. Moderna Inc.’s vaccine also gained emergency authorization in the U.S. The conversation has been edited and condensed.
The Astra vaccine is the third to be approved by either the U.K., U.S. or EU, but it’s different from the first two. How so?