The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has begun rolling review of Astra Zeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Astra Zeneca and Oxford University are both testing the AZD1222 vaccine and reached an agreement in April to produce and distribute the vaccine, granting Astra Zeneca responsibility for continuing the production and development of the vaccine as it progresses through the late stages.

“The UK MHRA has begun rolling review of Astra Zeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.“

The MHRA will initiate an independent review of the vaccine, using the information given by Astra Zeneca, and will then acknowledge and consider new data once it becomes available until the application is adequate to warrant the shot's regulatory authorisation.

According to recent studies, in both younger and older adults, AZD1222 activates defensive T cell response antibodies. In addition, Astra Zeneca stressed that among the elderly, adverse responses were lower.

An Astra Zeneca spokesperson stated: “It is encouraging to see immunogenicity responses were similar between older and younger adults and that reactogenicity was lower in older adults, where the COVID-19 disease severity is higher.”