"Successful COVID-19 Response but Protection for Immunocompromised and Variant Response Must Improve"

2022 Global Bio Conference
Keynote Speech by John Perez, Senior Vice President of AstraZeneca

[Asia Economy Reporter Youngwon Kim] John L Perez, Senior Vice President of AstraZeneca, suggested that although the response to COVID-19 has been successful, protection measures for more diverse groups and responses to variants are necessary.

Vice President Perez made these remarks during his keynote speech titled "Lessons and Innovations for the Continued Resolution of the COVID-19 Pandemic" at the 'Global Bio Conference 2022' held on the 5th.

He stated, "The COVID-19 pandemic brought everyone together and enabled the development of many tools to respond, but the burden of COVID-19 has not yet disappeared," citing the virus's evolution as the reason why COVID-19 has not ended. Vice President Perez explained, "COVID-19 is evolving faster than any virus in the past. We hope COVID-19 will end, but for this reason, it will be difficult, and each country is at the stage of deciding how to respond."

Regarding vaccination, he emphasized, "COVID-19 vaccines protect most people but not everyone. For immunocompromised individuals, such as blood cancer patients or those taking immunosuppressants due to organ transplants, vaccine effectiveness decreases over time," adding, "These are the people who end up hospitalized and whom we need to protect, so it is important." According to his presentation materials, during the Delta variant wave, 44.7% of hospitalized patients were immunocompromised individuals who had received a third dose, but this rose to 69.5% during the Omicron wave.

Vice President Perez mentioned that AstraZeneca's Evusheld can be used for COVID-19 prevention in immunocompromised patients and for treating early COVID-19 patients. He said, "Evusheld's availability is increasing globally for mild patients," and "It is the first agent approved both for pre-exposure prevention and as a treatment." Japan approved the use of Evusheld for both COVID-19 prevention and treatment on the 30th of last month.

Following the response to immunocompromised individuals, he emphasized the need to respond to variants. Vice President Perez argued, "As COVID-19 continues to evolve, vaccine compositions must also be updated," adding, "To do so, innovation in regulation and strategy is needed first." He also stressed the importance of supporting new technological developments based on continuous investment. He said, "All regulatory agencies prioritize safety, efficacy, and maintaining high quality regardless of who manufactures the vaccine, but the key is for pharmaceutical companies to quickly collect such data and provide it to regulators to accelerate decision-making," noting, "Through this approach, AstraZeneca was able to rapidly obtain vaccine approval."

Regarding regulatory innovation, he cited the clinical trials of the Pfizer vaccine approved in the United States as an example. Vice President Perez said, "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved a vaccine that had only been tested in mice and had no human data. Isn't that surprising?" He added, "Currently, flu vaccines do not need to repeat clinical trials each season, and this situation can be used as a base for decision-making for COVID-19 as well."

As examples of next-generation vaccines, he mentioned vaccines that can guarantee safety by producing the same effect with a smaller dose, and vaccines that can be used in countries where ultra-low temperature freezing storage is not possible.

Finally, Vice President Perez reiterated, "The burden of COVID-19 still remains, and vaccines protect most but not all," emphasizing again, "It is necessary to take protective measures for diverse groups and to develop treatments, regulatory strategies, and platform advancements to respond to new variants."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.