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(CNN Health) – US company AstraZeneca on Wednesday denied news reports that trials of its coronavirus vaccine have been stopped because of transverse myelitis, a rare inflammatory condition that affects the spinal cord.
“Reports that claim to be based on comments made by our CEO earlier today that we have confirmed that a participant in our clinical trial suffered from transverse myelitis are incorrect,” the company added.
An AstraZeneca spokesperson said, in an emailed statement to CNN, that the company’s chief executive stated that there was no final diagnosis before further testing was conducted.
The spokesperson said that “these tests will be delivered to an independent security committee that will review the event and make a final diagnosis.”
On Tuesday, AstraZeneca said it had temporarily halted vaccine trials around the world due to an undisclosed event, but did not specify what it was.
The New York Times quoted a source as saying that one of the volunteers in the experiment had transverse myelitis.
And on Wednesday, STAT News reported that the company’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, told investors in a conference call that the trial had been stopped because a volunteer in the trial developed symptoms consistent with transverse myelitis.
A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said a similar incident had previously occurred.
He continued: “We can also confirm that there was a brief trial pause in July (the last one) during the safety review after it was confirmed that one of the volunteers had an undiagnosed case of multiple sclerosis, which the independent committee concluded did not. it was related to the vaccine. “
