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The recent suspension of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine trial following an unexplained illness in a trial volunteer is a safety measure and is not an uncommon event, Health Ministry director of medical services Kenneth Mak said yesterday.
The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company announced the suspension yesterday, adding that the move was intended to give researchers time to examine safety data while maintaining the integrity of the trials.
Its vaccine, which is being developed with researchers at the University of Oxford, has been considered one of the world’s leading candidates.
Responding to inquiries about the incident at a virtual press conference yesterday, Associate Professor Mak, who is part of the multi-ministerial task force fighting Covid-19 in Singapore, added that such an incident could occur “very easily” with any other vaccine.
“That is why we have always shared that the road to vaccine development is long and can be difficult.
“The fact that we have several candidate vaccines that have been involved in phase III trials does not necessarily imply that we will have a ready-to-use vaccine in the immediate future,” he said, adding that authorities here are waiting for more information before evaluating the AstraZeneca Vaccine Safety and Efficacy.
Professor Mak said authorities are engaging companies with the aim of bringing promising Covid-19 vaccines to Singapore in the future.
But he added: “We want to be sure that the vaccines we bring will be safe, they will be able to fulfill the promise they have and (that) they will also be effective.
He also highlighted attempts to produce a vaccine here, citing one that is being developed jointly by the Duke-NUS School of Medicine and the American pharmaceutical company Arcturus Therapeutics.
Known as Lunar-Cov19, the vaccine is currently in clinical trials, with the first group of local volunteers receiving a dose last month.
Worldwide, it is one of 34 Covid-19 candidate vaccines currently in clinical trials.
“We continue to await the results of these studies, and we hope that promising vaccine candidates will be developed and put into commercial development and made available to the entire population,” said Professor Mak.
But Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, who was also at the press conference, warned: “It is important that we keep in mind that while we hope that one day a vaccine will arrive, in the meantime, we have to remain vigilant and making sure our safe distancing measures are in place … We need everyone to work together to keep Singapore and Singaporeans safe. “
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