AstraZeneca given green light to resume Covid-19 vaccine trials
AstraZeneca is set to continue its clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine in the UK after receiving the green light from safety watchdogs, it said on Saturday.
The trials of one of the most developed Covid-19 vaccines was suspended earlier in the week following a report of dangerous side effects.
However, safety reviewers have recommended to the UK’s Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA), that the trials of the experimental vaccine, developed in collaboration with researchers from the University of Oxford, was safe to proceed.
“On 6 September, the standard review process triggered a voluntary pause to vaccination across all global trials to allow review of safety data by independent committees, and international regulators,” AstraZeneca said.
The patient who suffered the adverse effects during the study had reportedly been suffering neurological symptoms associated with a rare spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis.
AstraZeneca said it could not disclose further medical information.
With the Covid-19 global death toll closing in one 1m, governments around the world are eager for vaccine to approved quickly.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had flagged AstraZeneca’s as the most promising.
The Cambridge-based company has already agreed to supply close to three billion doses to governments across the globe.
The WHO’s chief scientist said the pause in the trial should serve as a “wake-up” call that there would be ups and downs in the development of a vaccine, according to Reuters.