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On Wednesday, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca informs Dagbladet that they have suspended trials of their candidate vaccine indefinitely following suspicions of a “potentially unexplained disease.”
Health Minister Bent Høie tells Dagbladet that this may delay mass vaccination in Norway.
– I hope we can start vaccination during the winter of 2021. But it depends on the vaccine candidates that we have reached agreement on or are working on to achieve. The vaccine candidate who has now been put on hold is the candidate who has been at the forefront of the road. When I discussed that we can get a vaccine approved before Christmas, I spoke of this particular vaccine candidate, Høie tells Dagbladet.
– If the vaccine turns out to cause serious side effects, something we currently do not know what causes it, then it could delay the “best case” scenario I discussed.
Accelerate investigation
AstraZeneca press director Christina Hägerstrand Malmberg tells Dagbladet that they have voluntarily put the clinical studies on hold so that an independent committee has a chance to review the safety data.
She emphasizes that this is a routine investigation.
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– Diseases can appear randomly in relation to large studies, and to control this these incidents are investigated independently. We are working to expedite the investigation of this unique incident and minimize the potential impact on the study timeline, Malmberg tells Dagbladet.
The EU has already ordered 400 million doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca, which is developing its vaccine in collaboration with the University of Oxford. Norway receives help from Sweden to secure vaccine doses through the EU purchase agreement, but demand will likely be greater than production capacity at first.
Reminder
Health Minister Bent Høie tells Dagbladet that this is a reminder.
– For me, it is important to note that it has not been confirmed that it is a side effect. If a subject becomes seriously ill, the usual procedure is to investigate whether there may be any connection to the vaccine test. In such cases, you take a break, as you do now, which is very important, Høie says.
The candidate vaccine has reached the third and final phase of clinical studies. This phase is absolutely crucial as it can reveal rare side effects that can only be detected by testing the vaccine on thousands of people.
Høie remains optimistic because there are many players working to find a vaccine solution. At the same time, it emphasizes that nothing is certain until a vaccine is approved.
– This is a reminder to all of us that nothing is certain until we have a vaccine finally approved. And that is why Norway, together with Europe, is currently investing in nine different vaccines to reduce the risk that candidates will not be successful.
Pace increase
Health authorities have already created a task force that is tasked with preparing Norway for mass vaccination. On Monday, Professional Director Frode Forland of the National Institute of Public Health told Dagbladet that the Ministry of Health and Care Services has asked this task force to accelerate the pace of its work.
– The Ministry of Health and Care Services has commissioned the National Institute of Public Health to prepare us more quickly so that we can get into a situation where we will start mass vaccination in Norway, he said.
