Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine trial results 'definitely' before Christmas - investigator

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

LONDON, November 19 (Reuters): Results of late-stage trials of University of Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine candidate should definitely be known by Christmas, the chief investigator on the study said on Thursday, adding it was too early to know its efficacy yet.

Asked if it was too early to say whether the vaccine, which is licensed to AstraZeneca, stops disease developing, Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said: "We haven't quite got to that point yet. We're obviously not going to rush that."

"We're getting close, and it's definitely going to be before Christmas, based on the progress," he told BBC Radio when asked when the trial investigators would be unblinded to efficacy data and results released.