WHO chief scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan says trial suspension is a 'wake up call'

Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist at the World Health Organisation, says that the agency is not worried about the pause in trials for the vaccine against the novel coronavirus. Oxford University and AstraZeneca were developing the vaccine. She termed the pause as a 'wake-up call' to the global community to realise 'there are ups and downs in research.'

Trial suspension a 'wake up call'

She said that the data so far has been 'quite promising'. However, she emphasised on the need to conduct a trial on tens of thousands of people and only then come to the conclusion if a vaccine can safely protect people from infection. She said, 'It could be that we see some results end of the year, it could be next year. We have to be a little bit patient and wait for the results'.

After AstraZeneca paused its COVID-19 vaccine candidate over the “potentially unexplained” illness of a UK volunteer, the company has now said that it aims to speed the manufacture of the vaccine and make it available as early as the 2020 year-end. AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot held a live-streamed address with local UK health news outlet Tortoise, saying, that the firm still aims to have a vaccine by the end of this year, or early next year. The CEO said in a virtual live-streamed address that while it is unclear how long the trial will be paused in response to a recent adverse illness, 2020 approval was still “on the cards”.

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Director of UK scientific research charity the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar, said in an address on a radio interview that there were often pauses in vaccine trials, adding, that it indicated the importance of conducting vaccine trials properly. He said that the pause showed that the company was into a rush to make a vaccine but a clinically safe vaccine with independent oversight and the involvement of the regulators and experts. In the end, the vaccine has to be safe and of course effective for absolute public trust, he said.

(With agency inputs)

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