The CEO of AstraZeneca (AZN) – Get Report said the coronavirus vaccine the company is developing with Oxford University may still be in a position before the end of the year, despite pausing a trial after one of the participants became ill. .
Speaking at an online convention Thursday, Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, said his company is still on track to resume the Phase 3 trial and potentially expand a viable Covid-19 vaccine, even after postponing trials after the discovery of a neurological challenge in a patient.
“What we have here is a special set of cases where everyone is interested in doing a clinical trial,” Soriot said Thursday, noting that independent experts are lately looking at the patient’s disease to see if it is similar to the disease. trial vaccine. “The truth is that we all have to be very patient and see how it goes. “
Last month, AstraZeneca presented phase 3 testing of its Covid-19 trial vaccine, which reaches about 30,000 participants in the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa; however, the trial was discontinued on Monday after one of the patients in the trial became ill, prompting a broader review of the program.
The director of the U. S. National Institutes of Health is a member of the U. S. National Institutes of Health. Francis Collins told a Senate committee Wednesday that the trial had stopped due to a “spinal cord problem. “Soriot provided a little more clarity on this, noting Thursday that the researchers were still investigating the patient had an unrelated condition called transverse myelitis, which is an inflammation of the spinal cord.
A final resolution on the resumption of the trial will be made through the UK Medical Regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which could take a position in a few days, Soriot said. Look forward.
AstraZeneca is one of more than 30 pharmaceutical corporations in the race to expand a viable Covid-19 vaccine. The British drug manufacturer announced last month the launch of a separate test to evaluate the efficacy of AZD7442, a mixture of two monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that it hopes can lead to a preventive remedy for Covid-19 and a pharmacological remedy for those who have already contracted it.
As of this week, the global pandemic has made more than 27 million people sick and caused nearly 900,000 deaths, nearly 200,000 of whom have been recorded in the United States.
AstraZeneca’s U. S. certificate of deposit rose 0. 89% to $54. 12 on Thursday.