Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said a Covid-19 vaccine may still be available by the end of the year, despite the suspension of a randomized clinical trial.
“We may still have a vaccine until the end of this year, early next year,” Pascal Soriot, executive leader of the UK-based company, said in commentary at a press event.
AstraZeneca announced wednesday that he had “voluntarily suspended” his trial of a drug developed throughout Oxford University after a British volunteer developed an unexplained disease.
An independent committee was formed to review the safety, however, the company said it was a “routine action” designed for the integrity of the tests.
“We will be guided through this committee as to when the evidence can be restarted, so that we can continue with our paintings as soon as possible,” Soriot said in a statement.
The AstraZeneca vaccine candidate is one of the world’s most recently applicants in human phase 3 trials.
Meanwhile, the Serum Institute of India has stopped the AstraZeneca vaccine in the country until the British pharmaceutical company restarts them, the company said yesterday.
“We are reviewing and postponing trials in India,” Serum, the world’s largest manufacturer of volume vaccines, said in a brief statement.
The decision to suspend trials in India comes after Comptroller-General for Medicines of India (DCGI) V G Somani asked Serum for the main points on the suspension of trials abroad, in a conduct of the justification he reviewed through Reuters.
Somani asked the company why trials deserve not to be suspended in India until patient protection is established and warned that Serum could face action if it does not come up with an explanation.
Serum said he was following DCGI’s orders and would not comment on it.
The DCGI responded to an email requesting a comment.
In the United States, AstraZeneca began recruiting 30,000 volunteers at dozens of sites on August 31, and smaller teams are being tested in Brazil and elsewhere in South America.
The vaccine, called AZD1222, uses a weakened edition of a common cold-causing adenovirus designed to encode the complex protein that coronavirus uses to invade cells.
After vaccination, this protein is produced in the human body, which prepares the immune formula to attack the coronavirus if the user becomes infected later.
Jeremy Farrar, director of the British Wellcome Trust Scientific Research Association, said there were interruptions in vaccine trials.
He told BBC radio in an interview that this is the importance of conducting vaccine trials appropriately, with independent monitoring and regulator participation.
“Ultimately, the public will have to have absolute confidence that these vaccines are and of course effective, and in the end, we hope, the pandemic will end,” he added.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the breakup “not necessarily” was a setback, and said a similar pause had occurred recently but had been “resolved smoothly. “
The pandemic has killed at least 904,534 other international people since it first made its impression in China late last year, according to an official source-based AFP count. More than 27. 9 million cases have been confirmed.
REGISTER CASES, DEATHS
India reported record jumps in coronavirus infections and deaths, bringing its number of cases to more than 4. 4 million, according to Ministry of Health figures.
In the last 24 hours, 95,735 new infections have been detected, with 1,172 deaths representing the highest mortality figures in more than a month, to bring the death toll to more than 75,000.
The French government will talk about the possibility of imposing new local closures in an attempt to combat the Covid-19 boom while maintaining economic and social activities.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said nothing would be governed at the closet meeting, while President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped the new measures would not be too restrictive.
Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, plans to re-impose a partial blockade on Monday, fearing that the increase in cases could simply “collapse” its hospitals under pressure, the city’s governor said.
The megacity of about 30 million more people will see the closure of many giant buildings and mosques, as well as restaurants and other entertainment venues, while public transport schedules will also be limited.
VACCINE DISTRIBUTION CHALLENGE
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has suggested that governments start making plans now for a vaccine to reach others around the world.
IATA warned that the delivery of vaccines will be the “mission of the century” for the aviation industry, warning governments to prepare for the “giant and complex task ahead. “
The group, which represents 290 airlines, estimates that 8,000,747 shipping aircraft will send enough vials for a single dose consistent with the children.
The World Health Organization said coronavirus cases across the Middle East, from Morocco to Pakistan, had exceeded two million.
The workload for the 21 countries has more than doubled since 1 July, the UN said.
Regional Director Ahmed Mandhari warned that even countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, which had kept their infection rates under control, are now facing significant increases.
WHO has met the most affected countries such as Iran with more than 393,000 cases, Saudi Arabia with more than 320,000, Pakistan with just under 300,000 and Iraq with nearly 274,000.