London: British pharma company AstraZeneca said on Saturday it has restarted COVID-19 vaccine trial after getting the go-ahead from the country’s regulators.
The vaccine trial was paused after a volunteer from the UK developed severe neurological symptoms.
“Clinical trials for the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, have resumed in the UK following confirmation by the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) that it was safe to do so,” the company said in a statement.
The pharma giant also stated that it had “voluntarily paused” the trial.
An independent committee will be reviewing the safety of the vaccine. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that this is a routine step.
The committee “has concluded its investigations and recommended to the MHRA that trials in the UK are safe to resume”, AstraZeneca said.
This is one of the nine vaccines in advanced stage of phase III human trials.
It uses a weakened version of a common cold-causing adenovirus engineered to code for the spike protein that COVID-19 uses to invade cells. The vaccine produces this protein in the human body and prepares the immune system to attack the virus.
“AstraZeneca is committed to the safety of trial participants and the highest standards of conduct in clinical trials,” it said in the statement.
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