• An employee is pictured at the Reference Centre for Special Immunobiologicals (CRIE) of the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the trials of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine are conducted. Amanda Perobelli / Reuters
    An employee is pictured at the Reference Centre for Special Immunobiologicals (CRIE) of the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the trials of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine are conducted. Amanda Perobelli / Reuters
  • A chemist works at AstraZeneca's Sydney labs after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australians will be among the first in the world to receive a coronavirus disease vaccine, if it proves successful. Dan Himbrechts / Australian Associated Press via Reuters
    A chemist works at AstraZeneca's Sydney labs after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australians will be among the first in the world to receive a coronavirus disease vaccine, if it proves successful. Dan Himbrechts / Australian Associated Press via Reuters
  • AstraZeneca's vaccine was among the furthest along in development. AFP
    AstraZeneca's vaccine was among the furthest along in development. AFP
  • Technicians work at the mAbxience biopharmaceutical company on an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and the laboratory AstraZeneca in Garin, Argentina. Natacha Pisarenko / AP
    Technicians work at the mAbxience biopharmaceutical company on an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and the laboratory AstraZeneca in Garin, Argentina. Natacha Pisarenko / AP
  • The single trial volunteer's illness is not seen as a significant setback, despite the publicity surrounding it. Paul Ellis / AFP
    The single trial volunteer's illness is not seen as a significant setback, despite the publicity surrounding it. Paul Ellis / AFP
  • Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison tours AstraZeneca's Sydney laboratories in September as the government signs a deal with the British-Swedish firm for a supply of a Covid-19 vaccine. EPA
    Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison tours AstraZeneca's Sydney laboratories in September as the government signs a deal with the British-Swedish firm for a supply of a Covid-19 vaccine. EPA

How the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine differs from other shots


Daniel Bardsley
  • English
  • Arabic

Latest: Dubai approves Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to fight Covid-19

The Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine will be distributed in the UK beginning early January.

The country’s medicines regulator is set to give the green light this week, reports say.

It comes after several other coronavirus vaccines gained approval in various parts of the world, among them shots from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sinopharm. In the UAE, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinopharm vaccines are already being used.

Here, we look at the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, how it differs from other vaccines and what could be done to improve it.

How does it work?

The vaccine is given in two doses, 28 days apart.

Researchers extracted genetic instructions for building coronavirus spike proteins – the structures on the outside of the virus that it uses to enter human cells – and inserted them into another virus called an adenovirus. The host adenovirus used in the vaccine is a virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees.

This adenoviral vector, as it is known once new genetic material is added to an adenovirus, has been altered in the laboratory to ensure it cannot infect people and multiply.

Once it enters human cells, through the vaccine, it causes them to produce harmless coronavirus spike proteins. The body’s immune system reacts against these proteins and that response confers protection against the coronavirus.

Essentially it tricks the body into thinking it has been infected with Covid-19.

Other coronavirus vaccines employ similar technology, including Sputnik V from Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute.

While the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine involves two doses, based on the same chimpanzee adenovirus, Sputnik V uses two genetically engineered human adenoviruses, each given separately.

One benefit of the potential vaccine is that it does not need to be stored at extremely low temperatures. John Cairns / University of Oxford via AP
One benefit of the potential vaccine is that it does not need to be stored at extremely low temperatures. John Cairns / University of Oxford via AP

Why use adenoviruses?

Adenoviruses are seen as good vectors because they are stable. Once injected into people, they are unlikely to undergo genetic changes.

Chimpanzee adenoviruses are particularly good because humans will not have previously been infected by them. This reduces the risk of something known as adenoviral vector immunity: individuals infected with a particular adenovirus in the past may have developed immunity to the vector itself.

In such cases, when the vaccine is injected, the immune system jumps into action against the adenovirus and it cannot produce the proteins it has been genetically engineered to create. If these proteins are not synthesised, a person’s immune system will not react against them to give immunity to whichever disease the vaccine is supposed to prevent.

So the person has immunity to the vaccine vector but not to the disease.

As well as being used in vaccines, adenoviruses are also useful vectors for gene therapy, in which therapeutic genes are delivered into the cells of people with genetic defects.

Who is behind the vaccine and how have they tested it?

A team of University of Oxford scientists completed their design for the vaccine after Chinese researchers released details of the coronavirus genetic material online early this year.

The university teamed up with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to develop and distribute the vaccine.

Much of the funding came from the British government, which bought up 100m doses in advance.

Clinical trials involving more than 24,000 people took place in Brazil, South Africa and the UK and manufacturing is taking place in more than 10 countries to ensure, as the university put it in November, “equitable global distribution”.

An Oxford Vaccine Group researcher in a laboratory in Oxford. AP
An Oxford Vaccine Group researcher in a laboratory in Oxford. AP

How effective is this 'winning formula'?

In late-stage clinical trials, the vaccine was, overall, 70.4 per cent effective at preventing people falling ill with Covid-19. This figure averages results from two dosing regimens.

With two standard doses, effectiveness was 62.1 per cent. When people were given half a dose, and then a full dose, efficacy was 90 per cent.

In comments to British media published on Sunday, AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said a “winning formula” had been worked out that would achieve results “up there with everybody else" – a possible reference to other vaccines that are as much as 95 per cent effective.

Mr Soriot also indicated the vaccine was completely effective at preventing severe cases of Covid-19.

Scientists not connected with the vaccine programme have suggested that an initial half-dose results in better protection because it reduces adenoviral vector immunity.

What benefits does the vaccine offer?

The vaccine is relatively cheap, costing about £3 (Dh14.7) per dose. Coronavirus vaccines based on messenger RNA, a type of genetic material, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, are several times more expensive. Another benefit is that it can be stored in a refrigerator and does not require extreme cold temperatures.

“It’s so much easier to store and distribute. Anything you can store at zero and a few degrees above is much easier,” said David Taylor, professor emeritus of pharmaceutical and public health policy at University College London.

Read More

In addition, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is thought to produce fewer allergic reactions than some coronavirus vaccines.

How could it be improved?

Aside from Mr Soriot’s comments that AstraZeneca had found an optimum regimen for the vaccine, this month it was announced that scientists were looking at combining it with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to increase efficacy.

The idea is that a person could be given one dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and another dose of one of Sputnik V’s two genetically engineered human adenoviruses.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is behind Sputnik V, said trials would begin by the end of the year.

Using the two vaccines may be better than two doses of the same vaccine because it reduces adenoviral vector immunity.

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Engine 8.0-litre quad-turbo, W16

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Torque 1600Nm @ 2,000rpm 0-100kph: 2.6 seconds 0-200kph: 6.1 seconds

Top speed 420 kph (governed)

Fuel economy, combined 35.2L / 100km (est)

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Publisher: Konami

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Rating: 4.5/5

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Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo

Power: 374hp at 5,500-6,500rpm

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Three-day coronation

Royal purification

The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.

The crown

Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.

The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.

The audience

On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.

The procession

The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.

Meet the people

On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.

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Date started: March 2016

Founder: Hasib Khan

Based: Dubai

Employees: 40

Amount raised (to date): $3.25m – $750,000 seed funding in 2017 and a Seed round of $2.5m last year. Raised $1.3m from Eureeca investors in January 2021 as part of a Series A round with a $5m target.

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Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal 

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Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo

Power: 258hp from 5,000-6,500rpm

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Transmission: Eight-speed auto

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Company name: Nybl 

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Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence

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Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)

Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up 

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Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill

Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.

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Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr

Rating: 4/5

When is VAR used?

Goals

Penalty decisions

Direct red-card incidents

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Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg

Rating: 4/5