London: A big vaccine trial halted this week after a participant experienced serious neurological symptoms. It was one of the first known bumps in the road for the highly touted vaccine candidate, which is being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
AstraZeneca said Saturday it had resumed phase three trials in the UK only, after receiving confirmation from the UK Medicines Health Regulatory Authority that it was safe to do so. The company said in a blog post it could not reveal any medical information, saying only that the “standard review process triggered a voluntary pause,” adding it was working with health authorities in other countries to determine when other clinical trials may resume.
Hitting pause on a promising vaccine candidate may be jarring, especially during a deadly pandemic. But it’s not unexpected, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that large-scale clinical trials are for. In clinical trials, researchers carefully monitor patients for any kind of bad reactions to the drug or treatment. If something goes wrong, they can pause, investigate, and then keep going once it’s safe to do so.
