The race to find a coronavirus vaccine continues, but it has been a mixed week in that search so far. AstraZeneca had to pause its vaccine trials when a woman developed severe neurological symptoms, the drugmaker told news agencies on Thursday.
The Comptroller General of Drugs of India asked the Serum Institute of India to cite the reasons why they had not reported the victim analysis of “reported serious adverse events”. The latter said the trials were ongoing and adhering to DCGI’s safety concerns.
The coronavirus has affected more than 28 million people around the world. More than 900,000 people have died.
India has reported over 90,000 cases and is currently close to reporting at least 100,000 cases per day.
These are the latest developments on the coronavirus vaccine:
• The office of the US Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that the emergency authorization of a Covid-19 vaccine will need to meet a higher standard of efficacy than is normally required for such authorization.
• The Brazilian government led by Bolsonaro has yet to decide whether to join the COVAX Facility, the global vaccine allocation plan led by the World Health Organization (WHO). COVAX aims to acquire and deliver 2 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of 2021. The deadline for Brazil to join the WHO-led initiative is September 18.
• WHO has called the recent suspension of testing of the Astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine a “wake-up call.” The chief scientist of the World Health Organization, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, said that the world community must realize that “there are ups and downs in research.”
• Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the nation’s health ministry will decide next week whether to conduct phase III testing of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. “Our vaccine science team will have made their evaluation on the subject in the coming days. We will probably allow Phase III to work for the vaccine in Russia next week, “he said while speaking to Reuters.
• The Brazilian state of Bahia signed a confidentiality agreement on Tuesday to test the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and will receive 500 doses as soon as Anvisa, Brazil’s health regulator, approves the testing protocols. Governor Rui Costa told Reuters that Brazil will also buy 50 million doses of the vaccine and plans to commit to that decision on Friday.
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