Israel is in negotiations with biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to receive its novel coronavirus vaccine candidate, Globes reported and The Jerusalem Post has confirmed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that the country is working on striking deals with additional companies, but he did not name them.
AstraZeneca is in the midst of an FDA-approved Phase III trial of its COVID-19 AZD1222 vaccine.
In September, as part of the review process, the company voluntarily paused the trial due to a safety concern. But the next month, following FDA review, the trial was authorized to restart in the US and around the world, including in the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa and Japan.
The company describes its vaccine candidate on its website as being coinvented by the University of Oxford and its spin-out company, Vaccitech.
“It uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein,” the website says. “After vaccination, the surface spike protein is produced, priming the immune system to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus if it later infects the body.”
Israel signed a contract on Friday to receive eight million doses – enough for four million citizens – of the Pfizer vaccine candidate, after the company announced that an interim analysis of its Phase III trial of its coronavirus vaccine showed 90% efficacy.
The country already had contracts with Moderna Inc. and Arcturus to receive several million doses of their vaccine candidates. Moderna reported on Monday that its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19, based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial.
Netanyahu explained the country’s method for procuring coronavirus vaccines last week. “The principle is simple: Buy as many options as possible from as many companies as possible,” he said.
“The cost of buying vaccines is negligible, compared to the cost of not bringing them. The cost of throwing money in the trash, if the vaccines are unsuccessful, is minimal compared to not having vaccines.”