AstraZeneca said on Thursday it expects to have a new version of its Covid vaccine ready for use by this autumn as drugmakers respond to concerns about emerging variants of the virus that may be resistant to existing vaccines. The firm said it has been working with Oxford university’s scientists to adapt the shot.
“We’ve got a number of variant versions in the works that we’ll be picking from,”an Astra scientist said.
Meanwhile, African Union’s CDC said it was not “walking away” from AstraZeneca’s shot. “Our strategy is not to throw away our 100 million doses, but rather target countries that haven’t reported cases of the variant,” it said.