London: Global pharma company AstraZeneca announced that it has “voluntarily paused” a randomized clinical trial of its coronavirus vaccine after a volunteer developed an unexplained illness.
As part of the ongoing randomized, controlled global trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, our standard review process was triggered and we voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee, the company said.
The UK-based company added 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.
The biopharmaceutical company has recrntly expanded the development of its COVID-19 vaccine AZD1222 into a Phase III clinical trial in the US across all adult age groups to assess its safety, efficacy and immunogenicity.
AZD1222 was co-invented by the University of Oxford and its spin-out company, Vaccitech. It uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein. After vaccination, the surface spike protein is produced, priming the immune system to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus if it later infects the body.