The COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has achieved a "winning formula" for efficacy, the company's chief executive said on Sunday, according to AFP.
The vaccine provides "100 per cent protection" against severe COVID-19 disease requiring hospitalization, Pascal Soriot said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper.
He added he believes trials will show his firm has achieved a vaccine efficacy equal to Pfizer-BioNTech at 95 per cent and Moderna at 94.5 per cent.
“We think we have figured out the winning formula and how to get efficacy that, after two doses, is up there with everybody else," he said, adding only that data would be published at "some point."
Earlier trials had shown varying outcomes in the AstraZeneca shot's efficacy. The vaccine initially showed an average 70 per cent effectiveness but that level jumped to 90 per cent depending on dosage.
On Saturday, The Telegraph newspaper reported that the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University will be rolled out in Britain starting January 4.
The Government is aiming for two million people to receive their first dose of either the Oxford vaccine or the Pfizer vaccine within a fortnight as part of a major ramping up of the inoculation program, according to the report.
Britain began its vaccination campaign earlier this month, administering doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Saturday’s report comes amid growing pressure on the British Government to accelerate the rollout of the vaccine in response to surging infection rates across the country, fuelled by the new strain of COVID-19 which is believed to have originated in Kent.
Last week, Britain announced a stay at home order for part of the country to slow the new variant.