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Logo of the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in North West England – Photo: AFP
The AZD1222 vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Company with the University of Oxford, is considered one of the vaccines with the greatest potential to prevent COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus.
“As part of a global randomized controlled trial of the AZD1222 vaccine, we have started the standardization process and voluntarily suspended the trial to allow a poisoning committee. An evaluation of the safety data of this vaccine has been carried out” – announced the spokesperson from AstraZeneca on September 8.
This is a decision consistent with the general rule of thumb for all trials, this person claimed, when participants’ cases suddenly developed an unexplained illness. Therefore, evaluation of the safety of the AZD1222 vaccine is necessary and AstraZeneca will continue to retain the results of the vaccine trial until now.
An AstraZeneca spokesperson also added that in large trials illness situations sometimes occur by accident, but need to be reviewed independently.
Suspension of a clinical trial is not uncommon, but this is the first time it has occurred in a COVID-19 vaccine trial.
AstraZeneca is one of nine companies currently entering phase 3 of testing, the final stage, of potential COVID-19 vaccines. In the US, AstraZeneca began testing 30,000 volunteers as of August 31.
Until now, AZD1222 has induced strong immune responses and does not cause major safety concerns.
