London: In a bit of a setback, a phase 3 clinical study of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has placed a ‘routine pause’ on the testing because 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,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“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,” reported AFP.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is one of the leading vaccine candidates that had moved into phase 3 testing. It was being tested on around 30,000 participants in the US, UK, Brazil and South Africa.
All international trials have now been paused till the safety data is verified independently, reports BBC.
“We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimise any potential impact on the trial timeline,” the spokesperson added.
The vaccine, codenamed AZD1222, is made from a weakened version of a common cold-causing adenovirus engineered to code for the spike protein that the novel coronavirus uses to invade cells.
This is the second time the Oxford vaccine has been paused.
