The pause in AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine trials after a participant fell ill is a 'wake-up' call, said World Health Organization's (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan during a virtual press briefing on September 10, 2020. She, however, said that it should not discourage researchers.
Swaminathan stated during the virtual briefing that this is a wake-up call to recognise that there are ups and downs in clinical development and that we have to be prepared. She added saying that we do not have to be discouraged, as these things happen.
AstraZeneca COVID vaccine's last phase of clinical trials was put on hold recently after one of the participants fell ill in the United Kingdom. However, AstraZeneca described the pause as a "routine" pause till the company investigates whether the recipient's "potentially unexplained" illness is a side effect of the vaccine shot.
AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine most promising vaccine candidate?
AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine, which was developed with UK's Oxford University, was regarded by the World Health Organisation as one of the most promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates in the world. Hence, the temporary suspension of the vaccine's last stage trials have come as a cause of concern and alarm for the world
The halt in the vaccine study comes at a time when governments are desperate to get a vaccine to bring an end to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that has caused more than 900,000 deaths globally and brought the global economy to a halt.
WHO's head of emergencies Mike Ryan stated that it is a race against this virus, and it's a race to save lives and not a race between companies or countries.
India pauses AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine trials
The Serum Insitute of India, which is producing and conducting trials of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is being developed by UK's Oxford University and AstraZeneca announced on September 10, 2020 that it is pausing the vaccine's clinical trials in India.
AstraZeneca has paused its vaccine trials in four countries on September 8, 2020 as a precautionary measure after a UK recipient showed potentially adverse symptoms. However, at that time, the Serum Institute had confirmed that Indian trials will continue as per schedule.
The Serum Insitute issued a statement on September 10 stating that they are reviewing the situation and pausing India trials till AstraZeneca restarts them. The phase 3 trials of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine were scheduled to begin next week upon 1600 volunteers across 17 sites in India.
AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine could still be ready before year-end?
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, while speaking during an online conference on September 10, said that the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the company with Oxford University could still be ready before the end of the year despite the current pause.
Background
AstraZeneca suspended its last-stage trials across the world earlier this week after a participant in the United Kingdom suffered from neurological symptoms.
Over 27.95 million people have reportedly been infected by coronavirus infection across the world. However, death rates are slowly going down, especially in Europe, as per WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove due to a combination of factors including better clinical care and early detection of cases.
Kerkhove stated that they are in a better position to prevent the virus from infecting vulnerable populations. However, she still voiced caution saying that the disease's long-term effects were still not known.
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