[ad_1]
After about a month ago, the final phase of the vaccine that AstraZeneca was developing in association with the University of Oxford was discontinued, due to a suspected adverse reaction in one of the participants, and Johnson & Johnson said, this Monday, which also discontinued its clinical trials, lo and behold, another suspension is announced. This is the clinical trial being conducted by the US-based pharmaceutical group Eli Lilly.
Antibody treatment, similar to that received by US President Donald Trump after showing symptoms of COVID-19 (albeit manufactured by another company, Regeneron), has been suspended for “safety reasons,” the company confirmed. with international media. For the AFP agency, a spokesman said he knew that “as a precautionary measure, the independent health surveillance committee of the ACTIV-3 trial recommended a pause in recruitment.” The company, he added, “supports the independent committee’s decision to carefully ensure the safety of the patients participating in the trial.”
Tests were being carried out on hospitalized patients with covid-19
The tests, funded by the US government, were being performed on hospitalized patients with COVID-19. In addition to the antibodies, all study participants were administered antiviral remdesivir, the first drug authorized in the European Union for the virus, details the New York Times (the European Commission recently signed a € 70 million contract with a company that Gilead manufactures it for the purchase of 500 thousand doses of this drug).
In addition to the reason the Eli Lilly clinical trials were discontinued, it is also not known how many participants reported adverse reactions and what those reactions were. According to the New York Times, suspension of large-scale clinical trials is not that uncommon, and such adverse reactions may not necessarily result from the administration of the drug or vaccine to be tested.
The antibody treatment the company was testing is similar to the one given to Donald Trump. At that time, the US president assured that he had been cured thanks to this treatment (which is used in people with various diseases, including cancer, and consists of the administration of monoclonal antibodies, that is, anyway, they respond to the same pathogen). ) and committed to making it available to the entire population.
Previous interruptions
Also Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson announced that it had halted phase 3 of its clinical trials after one of the participants fell ill. “Adverse events, even those that are serious, are an expected part of any clinical trial, especially large studies,” Johnson & Johnson clarified. Citing the “strong commitment to safety,” the pharmacist said there must be “a careful review of all medical information” before deciding whether the study can be resumed. “We have to respect the privacy of this patient,” he stressed, highlighting the importance of collecting “all the facts” before sharing “additional information.”
About a month ago, AstraZeneca also announced the suspension of the final phase of testing of the vaccine it is developing in partnership with the University of Oxford. In a statement released later, the company confirmed “a pause in vaccination to allow review of safety data”, after a suspected adverse reaction had arisen in one of the study participants. This was the vaccine that Portugal reserved, with 6.9 million doses planned to reach the country, 690 thousand of them already in December.
