In the news this week, Oxford University and AstraZeneca have temporarily suspended their joint COVID-19 vaccine trials over safety fears as a subject falls ill. In other news, GSK and Sanofi begin their own COVID trials, and a group of pharma companies have established a pledge to ensure safety while developing coronavirus vaccines. 

ASTRAZENECA PAUSES COVID-19 TRIAL OVER SAFETY FEARS – AstraZeneca has suspended trials of its experimental COVID vaccine AZD1222 after one trial participant experienced an ‘unexplained illness’. The company noted that this was a routine suspension, though it will delay results of the trial in what is a close race to vaccine production. The news comes days after AstraZeneca announced it was expanding development of the vaccine into a phase III clinical trial in the U.S. to determine safety and efficacy.

GSK AND SANOFI BEGIN CORONAVIRUS TRIALS – GSK and Sanofi have begun clinical trials of their potential vaccine for COVID-19. The trial will see 440 individuals in the U.S. receive the vaccine, with results of the initial trials set for December 2020.

PHARMA COMPANIES ANNOUNCE ‘HISTORIC’ SAFETY PLEDGE FOR VACCINE PRODUCTION – Nine vaccine developers, including Merck and Pfizer, have taken part in a ‘historic pledge’ to uphold scientific and ethical standards while looking for a COVID-19 vaccine. This follows a number of debates about vaccine safety this year.

In other news:

R&D
AstraZeneca and Cancer Research UK pioneer antibody against cancer enzyme

Manufacturing
Inovio and Thermo Fisher Scientific sign deal for coronavirus vaccine production
CDC set to open vaccine sites by 1 November 2020

That’s all for now. See you next week!

Joshua Neil, Editor
Proventa International

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