Astrazeneca AZN 💉 💊 - AZN

Bad news. Stocks not moved though.

AZN is my largest holding… so I’m glad it hasn’t moved yet…
That said if the price does go down it will simply be an opportunity to load up on some for me.

These big pharma companies have multiple failed drugs with a few successes. Of course the later it fails during development the more expensive it is. Developing drugs is an expensive business.

AZN is one of my biggest holdings and has done well for me in the past with reasonable dividends and share price growth. I’m happy to keep holding

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The successful drugs that they earn billions from allow them to take risks and lose millions on other drugs. It’s very much the nature of the pharma industry that they will fail a lot.

AZN appear to have a proven track record, though, and with the population aging all the time, there will always be a market for people who need their various drugs, so I think they’re a good enough long-term hold. If the price does dip, I’ll be buying more shares also.

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AZN is holding firmly in the current climate and not budging below £60.

AstraZeneca announed it could produce and distribute 2 billion doses of Oxford University’s potential Covid vaccine. It’s signing agreements with the Serum Institute of India, as well as a $750m deal with two health institutions.

Those £60 prices seem good to me now. We are around all-time high at £85.

I keep looking at pharma and biotech, but I just don’t seem to time my research right.

They’ve said they’ll make vaccine “globally available at no profit”. what this actually means in practice I don’t know. I doubt they are doing it for free. Maybe it means making it available in poorer countries at cost?

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Probably funded in some parts by WHO/UN I’d imagine. Or donations from richer countries.

Read an article that said they’re making it available at cost.

Correct.

(CEO) said AstraZeneca would not seek to make a profit from producing the drug during the pandemic.

the company was building a number of supply chains across the world “to support global access at no profit during the pandemic and has so far secured manufacturing capacity for two billion doses of the vaccine”.

Meanwhile, the biggest ever pharma merger (£200b) possible, if reports are accurate:

Should be noted that they won’t be making a profit on the vaccine until the pademic is over.

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AZN up today on potentially positive vaccine news Early-stage trial data on AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine due Monday - Lancet | Reuters

A disappointing result, at 70% effectiveness - when compared with other vaccines. However, maybe their trial has been monitored more accurately?

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I think it’s probably the best result so far.

It’s much cheaper than the other vaccines at £3 Vs £15 & £22.

Plus it can be stored in a fridge which means it can actually be used globally by those who need it.

Finally, with the correct dosing it goes up to 90% effective.

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That’s not entirely accurate, I’d read the actual news’s and not what the bbc headline says

  • Phase 3 interim analysis including 131 Covid-19 cases indicates that the vaccine is 70.4% effective when combining data from two dosing regimens
  • In the two different dose regimens vaccine efficacy was 90% in one and 62% in the other
  • Higher efficacy regime used a halved first dose and standard second dose
  • Early indication that vaccine could reduce virus transmission from an observed reduction in asymptomatic infections
  • There were no hospitalised or severe cases in anyone who received the vaccine
  • Large safety database from over 24,000 volunteers from clinical trials in the UK, Brazil and South Africa, with follow up since April
  • Crucially, vaccine can be easily administered in existing healthcare systems, stored at ‘fridge temperature’ (2-8 °C) and distributed using existing logistics
  • Large scale manufacturing ongoing in over 10 countries to support equitable global access

Professor Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and Chief Investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial, said:

‘These findings show that we have an effective vaccine that will save many lives. Excitingly, we’ve found that one of our dosing regimens may be around 90% effective and if this dosing regime is used, more people could be vaccinated with planned vaccine supply. Today’s announcement is only possible thanks to the many volunteers in our trial, and the hard working and talented team of researchers based around the world.’

It’s actually really promising. Up to 90% effectiveness with the higher efficient dosing regime, and it requires much lower temperatures and is much cheaper to manufacture (from what I’ve heard)

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Yeah, all valid points. Let’s hope it helps us get through this.

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Even at 70% that’s excellent results, and should potentially cover enough that the virus is unable to effectively spread. Which is really all a vaccine is trying to accomplish.

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This is what I’m reading, assuming success the Oxford vaccine may be the most widely distributed. Even if price caps are placed on poorer countries (which it looks like they might) the Oxford one looks to also be the easiest to transport as well

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Good news - especially for the developing world.

This can be produced at scale, stored more easily and is cheaper than others.

70% effectiveness should be able to halt spread of virus assuming enough people are vaccinated. And it could even be 90% effective if I read the reports correctly.

Remember these are first generation vaccines so this level of effectiveness is truly staggering.