A COVID-19 vaccine candidate has shown a positive immune reaction from older participants in its phase two trials, according to a report published by the Oxford developers in the Lancet medical journal.
The effectiveness of vaccines among people in their 60s, the at-risk age category, has been a matter of concern as their immune systems are usually weakened and less adaptable.
The vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, was trialed among 560 healthy adult volunteers over 18 years of age in the UK and found similar immunoreactions across all age groups.
The participants consisted of 160 individuals aged 18-55, the same number of participants aged 56-65, and 240 people aged 70 years or older.
“Our findings show that the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine was safe and well tolerated with a lower reactogenicity profile in older adults than in younger adults.
“Immunogenicity was similar across age groups after a boost vaccination.
“If these responses correlate with protection in humans, these findings are encouraging because older individuals are at disproportionate risk of severe COVID-19 and so any vaccine adopted for use against SARS-CoV-2 must be effective in older adults,” the report read.
The vaccine is already in its phase three trials, which includes more people testing for potential adverse effects, with the participants of phase two taken into account in the preliminary data, the report said.
This comes days after news broke that a third vaccine has shown high efficacy in fighting the coronavirus.
U.S. firms Pfizer and Moderna and Russia’s Gamaleya centre have all shown over 90 per cent effectiveness in their phase three trials. (Sputnik/NAN)