AstraZeneca, J&J resume Covid-19 vaccine trial in US

Team Udayavani, Oct 24, 2020, 11:56 AM IST

Washington: AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have resumed COVID-19 vaccine trial in the United States, after briefly pausing the trials over “unexplained illness” in few volunteers.

Both the companies on Friday said that the “unexplained illness” in few volunteers appeared not to be related to the vaccine shot.

The final stage of testing of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate was paused in the US, as officials examine whether an illness in its trial poses a safety risk. That trial was stopped when a woman developed severe neurological symptoms consistent with transverse myelitis, a rare inflammation of the spinal cord, AstraZeneca said. However, the vaccine’s testing has resumed in other countries.

After a six-week pause, Federal health regulators gave AstraZeneca the go-ahead to resume the trials in US, concluding there was no evidence that the experimental vaccine had directly caused the neurological side effects reported in two participants.

Johnson & Johnson said that its trial, which had been on pause for 11 days, would restart after learning that a “serious medical event” in one study volunteer had “no clear cause.”

A Food and Drug Administration spokesperson declined to comment on the trial restarts.