This is a speed-up that pre-dates the mRNA trick Moderna had been working on, a virus from chimps (so humans aren't immune to it because it wouldn't infect humans normally, yet chimps are similar enough that the virus can get into a human cell) but hollowed out to make whatever you want instead of more copies of itself. You put any payload inside it and it'll re-program the patient's cells to make that for a brief period until the immune system cleans up the mess. This vaccine uses the spike protein as payload to train your immune system.
Is it also the case that the human getting vaccinated build up immunity to the carrier virus and thus booster shots might become less effective? Would that be a reason to get a booster shot from something other than AstraZeneca?
Exciting that they're using it as a platform to develop other vaccines.
But I still maintain the official names are ridiculous. “Vaxzevria” is the trademark used by AstraZeneca in the EU. (As you say, not ChAdOx1.) And yes, the general population end up seeing Vaxzevria, on their vaccine information forms, and online at https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/vaxzevria-...
Someone on Twitter says: "Galaxy brain take: Pfizer intentionally picked a terrible & unpronounceable brand name because it wants people to keep calling it "the Pfizer vaccine"". (I personally will just pronounce it as "Moriarty", that being the closest recognizable name.)
For other drugs, an amazing amount of effort is devoted to finding something that a) sounds "promising" but b) without making legally-untenable promises.
The name `Viagra`, famously, is supposed to evoke ideas of vigor and Niagra (Falls). Pfizer had some trouble with Champix (varenicline), which some regulators thought was too close to "champion", and so was called Chantix in some markets instead.
No, I don't think Comirnaty is any better! I am however relatively partial to Spikevax, aka Moderna: at least Spikevax is easily pronounceable.
I suppose you mean the vaccine names are mainly useful for regulatory purposes, because the general population will continue to name the vaccines after the manufacturer or researchers?
As a native French speaker, I would say Comirnaty is actually easier to pronounce than Spikevax, and I suspect it might be similar in other Romance languages.
Yes, and it was only when the AZ vaccine (Jansen?) showed a trombosis risk that all manufacturers started to fokus on branding their vaccines to potentially distance themselves, or was this a timely coincidence?
Why couldn't they just be called Moderna/Pfizer/... Covid Vaccine?
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is AstraZeneca
BNT162b2 is Pfizer/BioNTech