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“We can still have the vaccine before the end of this year, early next year,” said Pascal Soriot, CEO of the company.
According to him, everything depends on the efficiency of the activities of regulatory bodies.
Earlier this week, the pharmaceutical company announced that it had voluntarily suspended randomized clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine because a volunteer had unexplained ailments.
An independent committee was set up to monitor the safety of the vaccine being developed, but the company said it was “normal procedure” to ensure fair testing.
“This committee will tell us when testing can resume so that we can continue our work as soon as possible,” Soriot said in a statement.
AstraZeneca is among nine companies currently in the final stages of testing vaccines in development.
In the United States, AstraZeneca began registering the necessary 30,000 volunteers at dozens of locations on August 31.
AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 vaccine uses an attenuated adenovirus that causes the common cold that has been modified to encode a protein called spine that allows the new coronavirus to enter cells.
After vaccination, this protein is produced in the human body, which prepares the immune system to attack the coronavirus in the event of a subsequent infection.
Jeremy Farrar, head of research at the Wellcome Trust, a UK health charity, said such suspensions of vaccine testing were common.
In an interview with BBC Radio, he said that it showed the importance of getting the vaccine correctly, involving an independent controller and regulator.
“Ultimately, the public must have full confidence that these vaccines are safe and, of course, effective, and that they will eventually end the pandemic,” he added.
Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, said there could be more similar events, but progress in developing vaccines and treatments is generally positive.
“Some [vakcinų tyrimų] the results in terms of efficiency and safety will be announced later this year, “he told a news conference in Downing Street.
“And I think there’s a good chance that … we can start with more vaccines next year,” Wallance said.
Matthew Hancock, UK health secretary, said failing the tests “was not necessarily” a failure. There have been ruptures of this type recently, but they have been “resolved without problems,” he said.
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