AstraZeneca Trial Resumes In UK

Damascus, Sept. 12, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Rania al-Halabi (L) teaches her son Laith how to use hand cleansing gel at home in Damascus, capital of Syria, Sept. 10, 2020. Instead of helping her son review the lessons, Rania al-Halabi now spends time teaching her fifth-grade boy how to wear a mask and keep a distance at school to protect him from the coronavirus. For al-Halabi and her husband, the school year, which begins on Sept. 13 in Syria, poses a challenge to them amid fears of the COVID-19. They could not even hide their worries about sending their child to school. COVID-19 adds emotional, financial burden to Syrian families with start of school" (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua/IANS)
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Clinical trials for the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, have resumed in the UK following confirmation by the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) that it was safe to do so.

On September 6, the standard review process had triggered a voluntary pause to vaccination across all global trials to allow a review of safety data by independent committees and international regulators.

COVID-19 vaccine in 1 month? CSIR pins hope on Sepsivac by . The UK committee has concluded its investigations and recommended to the MHRA that trials in the UK are safe to resume, AstraZeneca said on Saturday.

“AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford as the trial sponsor cannot disclose further medical information. All trial investigators and participants will be updated with the relevant information and this will be disclosed on global clinical registries, according to the clinical trial and regulatory standards,” it added.

AstraZeneca is committed to the safety of the trial participants and the highest standards of conduct in clinical trials.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds his first face-to-face cabinet meeting at the Foreign Office since the Covid-19 Lockdown took place in March. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

“The company will continue to work with health authorities across the world and be guided as to when other clinical trials can resume to provide the vaccine broadly, equitably and at no profit during this pandemic,” the company said.

Matt Hancock Digital Covid-19 Press Conference 21/04 by .
Matt Hancock during a Digital Covid-19 Press Conference. (Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street)

AZD1222 was co-invented by the University of Oxford and its spin-out company, Vaccitech. It uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein.

After vaccination, the surface spike protein is produced, priming the immune system to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus if it later infects the body.

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