Wednesday, 14 October 2020 (YJC)_ Johnson & Johnson paused all clinical trials of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine after a study participant became sick with an "unexplained illness."
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson announced on Monday the suspension of its clinical trial of a vaccine against COVID-19 after one of the participants fell ill.
"We have temporarily paused further dosing in all our COVID-19 vaccine candidate clinical trials, including the entire Phase 3 trial, due to unexplained illness in one participant," the group said in a statement.
The company didn't reveal the nature of the person's illness. “We must respect this participant’s privacy,” the statement said.
“We’re also learning more about this participant’s illness, and it’s important to have all the facts before we share additional information.”
The company's current protocols provide for the suspension of a study to determine whether the illness, in this case, is related to the drug being evaluated and whether the trial can be resumed.
Because of the trial's suspension, recruitment for participants for phase 3 testing has also been frozen.
Recruitment of volunteers for phase 3 of the Johnson & Johnson clinical trials began at the end of September, with the aim of enrolling 60,000 participants at more than 200 sites in the United States and other countries, the group and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced.
Trials were also taking place in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and South Africa.
Johnson & Johnson is one of four companies in advanced stages of trialling a vaccine for coronavirus and was due to publish its results early next year.
The United States granted some $1.45 billion (€1.2 billion) in financing to the company as part of Operation Warp Speed, the White House's initiative to speed up the development and production of a viable COVID-19 vaccine.
Source: Euronews
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