LONDON: AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot on Wednesday expressed his hopes that a vaccine against the novel coronavirus developed by the pharmaceutical company will be ready by the end of 2020 or early 2021, despite having to pause clinical trials.
Earlier this week, the Swedish-British company froze the trials after discovering that one participant was ill with transverse myelitis. This condition causes inflammation of parts of the spinal cord and can be caused by infections, among other things. The Financial Times newspaper subsequently reported that AstraZeneca could resume clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine early next week.
“We could still have a vaccine by the end of this year, early next year,” Soriot said at an event organized by the Tortoise media group, as quoted by The Guardian newspaper.
According to the CEO, it is common for there to be such pauses in trials. The only difference is that the whole world is usually not looking.
“Still, I still think we are on our way to having a data set that we would send out before the end of the year. [for regulatory approval]”he added.
The vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca in partnership with the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford and the Oxford Vaccine Group is in phase 3 trials, which is the final stage before safety and efficacy data can be sent to the health regulators for approval.
More than 50,000 people around the world have participated in clinical studies to see if the candidate vaccine, known as AZD1222, can develop an immune response to COVID-19.
Earlier this week, the Swedish-British company froze the trials after discovering that one participant was ill with transverse myelitis. This condition causes inflammation of parts of the spinal cord and can be caused by infections, among other things. The Financial Times newspaper subsequently reported that AstraZeneca could resume clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine early next week.
“We could still have a vaccine by the end of this year, early next year,” Soriot said at an event organized by the Tortoise media group, as quoted by The Guardian newspaper.
According to the CEO, it is common for there to be such pauses in trials. The only difference is that the whole world is usually not looking.
“Still, I still think we are on our way to having a data set that we would send out before the end of the year. [for regulatory approval]”he added.
The vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca in partnership with the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford and the Oxford Vaccine Group is in phase 3 trials, which is the final stage before safety and efficacy data can be sent to the health regulators for approval.
More than 50,000 people around the world have participated in clinical studies to see if the candidate vaccine, known as AZD1222, can develop an immune response to COVID-19.
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