The COVID-19 vaccine of AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) and Oxford University works well as a third booster dose, stepping up antibodies to the coronavirus spike protein among participants in a study, the Financial Times said on Wednesday.
Citing a person familiar with the study told the publication that the antibody reaction to the booster shot was "unbelievable" and can "blow through almost any variant".
Moreover, the study reportedly dispels fears around the use of adenovirus - an inactivated cold virus used in the AstraZeneca vaccine - that it could lead to the immune system stopping recognising the virus's spike protein.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
Several scientists had raised concerns over booster shots in vaccines including AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Sputnik that use inactivated cold viruses to deliver the viral protein from Sars-Cov-2 to trigger an immune response.
"It kills all these arguments that you can’t use adenoviruses more than once,” the publication quoted the abovementioned source.
If the immunity of people who took the AstraZeneca vaccine starts fading, the booster shot can be used to increase the immunity or even help the body fight new variants of COVID-19. It is not known when they plan to publish the data, the report added.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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