ADVERTISEMENT

Astra’s Covid Vaccine Saved Over Six Million Lives In First Year

The AstraZeneca vaccine saved 6.3 million lives, Airfinity said, the estimate for the Pfizer-BioNTech SE shot was 5.9 million.

<div class="paragraphs"><p>Vials of the AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine at the Royal Health &amp; Wellbeing Centre in Oldham, U.K., on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. Photographer: Anthony Devlin/Bloomberg</p></div>
Vials of the AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine at the Royal Health & Wellbeing Centre in Oldham, U.K., on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. Photographer: Anthony Devlin/Bloomberg

Covid vaccines from AstraZeneca Plc and Pfizer Inc. had the biggest impact in preventing deaths in the first year of the global rollout, saving an estimated 12 million lives.

That’s the upshot of a new analysis from Airfinity Ltd., a London-based data firm. The AstraZeneca vaccine developed with the University of Oxford saved 6.3 million lives, Airfinity said Wednesday. The estimate for the Pfizer-BioNTech SE shot was 5.9 million. 

The companies swiftly scaled up production and delivered doses before other manufacturers, according to the report. The findings build on a study last month estimating that vaccines saved about 20 million lives in the first year of the campaign, more than half of them in wealthier countries. 

While vaccines from companies such as Pfizer, Moderna Inc., AstraZeneca and others have curbed hospitalizations and deaths, vast parts of the world still struggled to get access to shots last year and delivery snags, hesitancy and other challenges in recent months have hampered the effort.

While more than 7 million deaths were likely averted in countries covered by Covax, the World Health Organization-backed distribution program, research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal highlighted the devastation caused by uneven access. About one in five lives lost due to Covid in poorer countries could have been prevented if WHO targets had been reached, the data show.

Airfinity said the AstraZeneca shot went first to older-age groups in high-income counties and nations with more vulnerable health-care systems. The firm determined that the Sinovac and Moderna vaccines saved about 2 million and 1.7 million lives, respectively.

Separately, AstraZeneca cited a review of data from 79 real-world studies showing that its vaccine, Vaxzevria, and the available messenger RNA ones provide equally effective protection against hospitalization and death after two doses.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.