Oxford COVID vaccine trials suspended after volunteer fell ill (Representation)
London:
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said on Saturday it had resumed a Covid-19 vaccine trial after getting the green light from British regulators, following a break caused by the illness of a British volunteer.
“Clinical trials for the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, have resumed in the UK after confirmation by the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) that it is safe to do so,” the company said in a statement.
AstraZeneca announced Wednesday that it had “voluntarily suspended” its trial of the vaccine developed alongside the University of Oxford after the volunteer developed an unexplained illness.
An independent committee has been formed to review safety, which the company and the World Health Organization have described as a routine step.
The committee “has concluded its investigations and recommended to the MHRA that trials in the UK can safely resume,” AstraZeneca said.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate is one of nine candidates worldwide currently in phase 3 human trials.
In the United States, the company began recruiting 30,000 volunteers at dozens of sites on August 31, and inoculation is being tested in smaller groups in Brazil and elsewhere in South America.
The AZD1222 vaccine uses a weakened version of a common cold-causing adenovirus designed to encode the spike protein that the Covid-19 coronavirus uses to invade cells.
After vaccination, this protein is produced inside the human body, which prepares the immune system to attack the coronavirus if the person is subsequently infected.
“AstraZeneca is committed to the safety of trial participants and the highest standards of conduct in clinical trials,” the statement said on Saturday.
“The company will continue to work with health authorities around the world and will be guided as to when other clinical trials can resume to provide the vaccine in a broad, fair and unprofitable manner during this pandemic.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
