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Clinical trials on one of the most advanced Covid-19 experimental vaccines, which is being developed by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, were “paused” on Tuesday after a volunteer developed an unexplained illness.
With billions of people around the world still suffering from the consequences of the pandemic and the global death toll approaching 900,000, a global race for a vaccine is underway, with nine companies already in the loop. final phase of phase 3 trials.
To date, infections worldwide number more than 27 million, and more than 890,000 people have died from the disease.
Russia has already approved a vaccine and research published in the medical journal The Lancet last week said that patients involved in the first tests developed antibodies without “serious adverse events,” although scientists cautioned the trials were too small.
A spokesperson for the AstraZeneca vaccine said in a statement that “we voluntarily stopped vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee.”
“This is a routine action that has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is being investigated, ensuring that we maintain the integrity of the trials.”
The company said that in large-scale trials, illnesses sometimes occur by chance, but they need to be reviewed independently.
AstraZeneca did not offer further details, but David Lo, a biomedical sciences professor at the University of California, Riverside, told AFP that the hiatus will not necessarily be a setback.
“It’s probably just being cautious right now, it’s a pause, it’s not the same as saying, ‘We can’t move forward,'” Lo said.
“Somehow I feel quite relieved, it means that they are really paying attention.”
The volunteer may have experienced an adverse reaction already seen in previous patients, such as fever and pain, but in a more severe way, Lo added.
British Health Minister Matt Hancock said it was not the first hiatus in trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“It’s a standard process in clinical trials. There was a hiatus in the early summer and that was resolved without a hitch,” he told Sky News.
Meanwhile, China exhibited its homegrown vaccines for the first time at a Beijing trade fair this week, and authorities expect their use to be approved by the end of the year.
The economic fallout of the virus continues to wreak havoc on economies around the world and governments are desperate to get back to normal.
South Africa announced that its economy had contracted more than half in the second quarter, as the epidemic took its toll on the most industrialized state in Africa.
Latin America and the Caribbean exceeded 300,000 deaths from viruses. Argentina’s number of cases surpassed the half million mark, while in Peru, which has the highest per capita coronavirus death rate in the world, deaths exceeded 30,000.
European countries were grappling with the high-profile political and sporting consequences of the pandemic on Tuesday.
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme tested positive for the virus, prompting French Prime Minister Jean Castex to take a test, authorities said, after the couple shared the same car to follow a stage of the cycling event.
Meanwhile, France’s soccer team was forced to take the field against Croatia on Tuesday without star forward Kylian Mbappé after he tested positive.
The French Open tennis tournament took a hit after world number one and defending champion Ashleigh Barty announced that she would not participate.
His doctor, however, was optimistic.
“All the monitored parameters … are reassuring,” Alberto Zangrillo said, adding that Berlusconi’s medical condition was “constantly evolving favorably.”
burs-jxb-bfm / to / axn / fox
