AstraZeneca puts its COVID-19 vaccine trial on hold after patient in UK falls ill

UK's AstraZeneca has paused its largest COVID-19 vaccine trial after a patient volunteering for the vaccine trial fell ill. The company said it is still trying to investigate whether the sudden illness of a candidate in the UK is a serious side-effect of the vaccine. The US health news site STAT first reported the pause in testing, saying the possible side effect occurred in the UK. 

AstraZeneca pauses its COVID-19 vaccine trial

As per the statement issued by AstraZeneca on September 8, Tuesday, the company announced that it's standard review process has triggered a pause to vaccination to allow the review of safety data. However, the company has not shared any more information about the possible side-effect rather than just calling it 'a potentially unexplained illness'. Right after the news of pause in the COVID-19 vaccine trial of AstraZeneca came out, its U.S trade shares fell by 6 per cent immediately. The spokesperson of AstraZeneca has confirmed the pause in COVID-19 vaccination cover studies in the U.S and other countries. 

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At the same time, the UK company is also testing COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University. The trials of Oxford's vaccine are being performed on thousands of people in Britain, Brazil and South Africa. Two other vaccines are in huge, final-stage tests in the United States, one made by Moderna Inc. and the other by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. However, these two vaccines work differently as compared to AstraZeneca and have just recruited two-third of the needed volunteers. Dr Ashish Jha of Brown University took to Twitter and said that the sudden and unclear pause on the COVID-19 vaccine trial is very important, and he is very hopeful that an effective vaccine will be released in the upcoming months. 

'Temporary holds on vaccine trials are common'

Temporary holds on the large studies of vaccine trials are very common. Also, it is mandatory for the company to investigate all the serious and unexpected reactions of the candidate to ensure safe testing trials. Address questions regarding the pause on the vaccine trials, AstraZeneca said that maybe this illness could be a coincidence as the illness of all sorts are possible to arise in such vaccine trial studies. 

“We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimize any potential impact on the trial timeline,” the company statement said.

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When a vaccine is in its third and final stage of testing, the researchers become more cautious and start to look for possible signs which may have gone undetected in earlier candidate research. As the vaccine study of AstraZeneca is very large, proper and detailed study is one of the most crucial phases of study because it will help to limit the common side effects and establish safety. When the dummy shot of the vaccine is given to the patients during the trial, the vaccine's effectiveness is also assessed by tracking who gets sick and who doesn't among the candidates volunteering for the trials. 

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The latest development on COVID-19 vaccine trial came out the same day when AstraZeneca's along with eight other drugmakers vowed to maintain the highest ethical and scientific standards in developing their vaccines. The U.S Food and Drug Administration is worried that President Donald Trump will pressurize the authorities to approve a vaccine before it is actually proven safe and effective. The U.S has invested billions of dollars in the COVID-19 vaccine so that it is quick to develop multiple vaccines against the pandemic. However, public fears that if the vaccine is unsafe or ineffective, it will result in a disaster over millions of Americans. 

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