A British health minister has defended AstraZeneca’s decision to pause its coronavirus vaccine trial due to safety issues.
UK health minister Matt Hancock said that the decision to temporarily suspend the trial is not necessarily a setback to the process.
Pharma giant AstraZeneca has announced that it decided to pause worldwide trials of its coronavirus vaccine due to an unexplained illness suffered by a volunteer.
“It is obviously a challenge to this particular vaccine,” Hancock told Sky News when asked about the decision on the trial of the candidate vaccine which is being developed with Oxford University.
“It’s not actually the first time that it’s happened to the Oxford vaccine and it’s a standard process in clinical trials whenever they find something that they need to investigate,” he added.
Asked if he considers the pause a setback, he said: “Not necessarily, it depends on what they find when they do the investigation.”
The decision of AstraZeneca to halt the trials of its coronavirus vaccine following an unexplained illness in one of the participants is a standard precaution in vaccine trials made to ensure that experimental vaccines do not cause serious reactions among participants.
In a statement, the drugmaker said: “As part of the ongoing randomized, controlled global trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, our standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data.”
The company said it was trying to expedite the review to “minimize any potential impact on the trial timeline.”
“We are committed to the safety of our participants and the highest standards of conduct in our trials,” the company noted.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine, dubbed the Oxford vaccine because it was developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, is being tested in various parts of the world, including the US, the UK, Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa.
The pharma firm said: “This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.”
“In large trials, illnesses will happen by chance but must be independently reviewed to check this carefully. We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimize any potential impact on the trial timeline. We are committed to the safety of our participants and the highest standards of conduct in our trials,” AstraZeneca explained.
Last week, the British pharmaceutical firm became the third company to begin Phase 3 trials in the US. Along with the other two drugmakers currently doing Phase 3 trials, Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTec, AstraZeneca received funding from the federal government.
In the trials, participants will be given two active or placebo doses, spaced four weeks apart. The firm is currently conducting Phase 3 trials in the UK, Brazil and South Africa and is eyeing to start similar trials in Japan and Russia.
