Drugs typically used to treat rheumatoid arthritis are now set to be given to COVID patients in intensive care with the hope they could save hundreds of lives.

Results from a government-funded clinical trial, published on Thursday, showed using the drugs reduced the relative risk of death by 24%, when administered to patients within 24 hours of entering intensive care.

It was revealed that tocilizumab and sarilumab can also reduce the time spent in hospital by up to 10 days for COVID patients.

Most of the data came from when the drugs were used in addition to a corticosteroid, such as dexamethasone, which has previously been found to be an effective treatment for severely-ill coronavirus patients.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock hailed "yet another landmark development" in the fight against COVID-19, with it hoped the roll-out of the new treatments will help reduce the current severe pressures on hospitals.

The government and the NHS will issue new guidance on Friday across the UK to encourage hospitals to immediately use tocilizumab in their treatment of COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-new-life-saving-treatment-can-reduce-risk-of-death-by-24-government-announces-12181646

Some 1.3 million people in the UK have now received their first dose of a Covid vaccine, says the government.

In England, that includes nearly a quarter of the most elderly, vulnerable patients.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it meant that within a two to three weeks they should have a "significant degree of immunity" to the virus.

He said there would be a ramping up to get more people immunised - up to 2 million a week.

The ambition is to vaccinate all the over-70s, the most clinically vulnerable and front-line health and care workers by mid-February. That will require around 13 million vaccinations.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55553072

An 82-year-old retired maintenance manager has become the first person in the world outside clinical trials to receive the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.

Brian Pinker, a dialysis patient, received the jab at 7.30am on Monday from Sam Foster, a nurse at Oxford University hospitals NHS foundation trust’s Churchill hospital.

Pinker, who describes himself as Oxford born and bred, said in a statement issued by NHS England that the jab would give him peace of mind as he continued to receive treatment, and he was looking forward to celebrating his 48th wedding anniversary in February.

“I am so pleased to be getting the Covid vaccine today and really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford,” he said. “The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife, Shirley, later this year.”

Foster said: “It was a real privilege to be able to deliver the first Oxford vaccine at the Churchill hospital here in Oxford, just a few hundred metres from where it was developed.

“We look forward to vaccinating many more patients and health and care staff with the Oxford vaccine in the coming weeks, which will make a huge difference to people living in the communities we serve and the staff who care for them in our hospitals.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/04/brian-pinker-is-first-to-get-oxfordastrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine

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Two million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be supplied each week by the middle of January, according to a report, despite a warning from England's chief medical officer about shortages.

Some 530,000 doses are ready to be distributed from Monday, following on from the earlier launch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was approved in December.

The Times quoted what it described as a key member of the AstraZeneca team saying that one million doses will be ready next week. "The plan is then to build it up fairly rapidly - by the third week of January we should get to two million a week," the source reportedly said.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-two-million-vaccine-doses-to-be-supplied-each-week-from-mid-january-report-12177151

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India has given a green light for emergency use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, making it the first jab to be granted approval by regulators in the Covid-19 pandemic’s second worst-hit country.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), whose experts were meeting on Friday for the second time this week came to the decision that paves the way for a near-immediate start to the inoculation process, according to Reuters.

The group was meeting a day ahead of a nationwide trial run for vaccine delivery in the country. According to Indian media reports, both AstraZeneca and the makers of a local vaccine candidate made presentations before the panel on Wednesday, while Pfizer, which has also applied for emergency authorisation sought more time to present their data.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, branded as “Covishield” in India, is being locally produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the biggest vaccine manufacturer in the world. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-covid-vaccine-oxford-astrazeneca-b1781201.html

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Sir John Bell, a professor at Oxford University in the U.K., told CNBC on Wednesday he was confident that Covid-19 vaccines could be retooled to provide effective protection against future coronavirus mutations.

Bell’s comments on “Closing Bell” come as global attention focuses on a strain of the virus widely circulating in the U.K. that may spread more easily than previous variants. It has since been detected in Colorado and California.

“This is going to be a game of cat and mouse now,” said Bell, who helped oversee Oxford’s vaccine development in partnership with AstraZeneca. The U.K. government granted that vaccine emergency use authorization Wednesday, after it had issued limited clearance to Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine earlier this month.

“If we have to make new vaccines, we can make them now that we’ve done the initial work. I’m sure our friends with the RNA vaccines can do the same,” Bell said. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were developed using messenger RNA technology, a new approach that uses genetic material to provoke an immune response. Oxford-AstraZeneca’s viral vector vaccine uses a weakened version of a common cold virus that causes infections in chimpanzees.

“We’re ready if we need to make another vaccine to approach it,” Bell added. He also noted that the development process to update vaccines will likely not require the same large-scale clinical trials conducted this year, only immunogenicity studies to make sure it sparks an immune response.

It is not uncommon for viruses to mutate, according to Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who serves on Pfizer’s board of directors. “Some viruses like flu evolve their surface proteins very quickly, and that’s why we need a different flu vaccine every season,” he told CNBC earlier this month.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/30/covid-vaccine-oxford-researcher-says-future-strains-can-be-protected-against.html

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A new variant of the novel coronavirus does not appear to cause more severe illness than other variants, according to a matched study bit.ly/2X7cLgp by Public Health England.

Scientists say the new variant can spread more rapidly. It was found in England in mid December and led to other countries imposing travel restrictions to the United Kingdom. Several other countries have reported variants.

Under the study, researchers compared 1,769 people infected with the new variant with 1,769 who had what they described as “wild-type” virus. The two groups were matched 1:1 on the basis of age, sex, area of residence and time of testing.

Of the 42 people who were admitted to hospital, 16 were infected with the new variant while 26 cases had wild type infection, according to the study. In terms of fatality, there were 12 deaths in variant cases compared to 10 deaths in wild-type cases.

“Preliminary results from the cohort study found no statistically significant difference in hospitalisation and 28-day case fatality between cases with the variant and wild-type comparator cases,” the study said.

There was no significant difference in the likelihood of reinfection with the new variant as compared with the other variants, it said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-variant-idUSKBN29401A?taid=5febd373047c5c0001cc0f21

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The U.K. now has enough vaccine to cover the entire population after the AstraZeneca–Oxford COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use, said health secretary Matt Hancock in an interview on Wednesday. 

The vaccine developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has been approved in the U.K., paving the way for widespread vaccinations with a homegrown shot that is cheaper and easier to transport and store than other vaccines.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the U.K. drug regulator, authorized the AstraZeneca–Oxford University vaccine for emergency use on Wednesday. It said in a statement: “The Government has today accepted the recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to authorize Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for use. ”

Hancock said in an interview with the BBC’s “Breakfast” show: “We’ve got enough of this vaccine on order to vaccinate the whole population — 100 million doses. Add that to the 30 million doses of Pfizer and that’s enough for two doses for the entire population.”

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u-k-now-has-enough-vaccine-to-cover-the-entire-population-after-astrazeneca-and-oxford-covid-19-vaccine-approved-11609317819

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The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, with the first doses due to be given on Monday amid rising coronavirus cases.

The UK has ordered 100 million doses - enough to vaccinate 50 million people.

This will cover the entire population, when combined with the full order of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

It comes as millions more people in England are expected to be placed under the toughest tier four restrictions.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the development "a triumph" for British science, adding: "We will now move to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible."

And England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty praised the "considerable collective effort that has brought us to this point".

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Hancock said the development was a "significant moment" in the fight against the virus.

It is the second jab to be approved in the UK after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was given the go-ahead in December.

More than 600,000 people in the UK have been vaccinated since Margaret Keenan became the first in the world to be given it outside of a clinical trial.

Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, which needs ultra cold storage at -70C, the Oxford-AstraZeneca can be stored in a standard fridge so will be easier to deliver to care homes and GP surgeries.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55280671

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