Online desk A detailed study conducted in the United Kingdom found that a new coronavirus vaccine is 79.3% effective.
The vaccine, invented by NovaVax, is also effective against a new strain of coronavirus found in Britain, says Fergus Wallace, the BBC's medical editor.
The United Kingdom has so far approved three vaccines for coronavirus for emergency use.
One is Oxford-AstraZeneca, the other is Pfizer-Bioentech and the third is the drug company Mordana Vaccine.
NovaVax, a US-based company, said that after a third round of clinical trials in the UK, their vaccine was found to be 79.3% effective.
The trial involved 15,000 people between the ages of 18 and 64, of whom 26 percent were over 65 years of age.
Most people in South Africa are infected with a new type of coronavirus. Trials there have shown that it is 80 percent effective in people who do not have HIV.
Stan Ark, chief executive of NovaVax, said the trial results in the UK were "excellent" and "as good as we had hoped".
And for South Africa, he said, the results there exceeded people's expectations.
UK Government Response:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the "good news" and said the UK's drug regulatory authority would now test the vaccine.
The United Kingdom has already ordered the purchase of 60 million doses of the vaccine, which will be manufactured in Stockton-on-Tees.
The government says the country will begin implementing the vaccine by the middle of this year if approved by the UK's Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
Health Minister Matt Hancock said if the new vaccine is approved, the NHS is ready to begin implementing it.
"This is positive news. If the medicine regulators approve it, the novavax vaccine will strengthen our vaccination program and it will be another weapon to combat this dreaded virus," he said.
"I am proud that the UK is at the forefront of another innovation. I would like to thank the talented scientists and researchers, as well as the thousands of volunteers who have taken part in clinical trials."
What the researchers say:
Professor Paul Heath, chief investigator of the NovaVax trial in the UK, said: "The results are thrilling, showing that the vaccine is quite effective and safe.
Peter Oppenheimer, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said the results of the vaccine trial in the UK were "excellent" but that tests in South Africa had shown it to be a little less effective.
Source: BBC Bangla
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