AstraZeneca CEO Still Sees Oxford Vaccine Possible By End of Year
September 10 2020 - 6:14AM
Dow Jones News
By Jenny Strasburg
LONDON--AstraZeneca PLC's chief executive said a Covid-19
vaccine it is developing with the University of Oxford could still
be ready by the end of the year, despite the company pausing
late-stage trials after a participant in the U.K. developed an
unexplained illness.
Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said the progress of a safety
review into the trial subject will determine the timetable for
vaccine progress. He said, though, that he still expects a set of
data from the trials that can be presented to regulators for
approval by the end of the year.
"We could still have a vaccine by the end of this year, early
next year," he told reporters during an online conference Thursday
morning.
Mr. Soirot said that manufacturing capacity for the global
distribution of the vaccine should be ready by early next year, and
that the company intends on making the vaccine available to all
regions of the world at the same time. AstraZeneca has inked deals
with several governments, manufacturers and other institutions
around the world to help it make and distribute its vaccine
worldwide.
An independent committee is reviewing potential safety concerns
related to the sick U.K. trial participant, which led to the trial
pause. The vaccine, which AstraZeneca has licensed from Oxford, is
one of the most advanced efforts in the West. Before the pause, the
company said it might have enough data by next month to submit the
vaccine to regulators for approval.
Mr. Soriot said the company doesn't have a diagnosis for the
trial subject who fell ill.
"More tests are being done on the patient, the person, who
developed the symptoms [...] You have to do a number of tests, and
you have to take time."
The U.K. study of the vaccine was paused once before, in July,
according to an Oxford spokesman. The university declined to
discuss specifics, other than that there were no ongoing concerns
as a result of the event. Material sent to study subjects in July
indicated the pause was triggered by symptoms in a volunteer of a
neurological disorder known as transverse myelitis. But AstraZeneca
said Wednesday the case turned out to be multiple sclerosis
unrelated to the vaccine and the testing resumed.
AstraZeneca had been conducting a large trial in the U.K., and
had just started another large, late-stage trial in the U.S., which
aims to enroll up to 30,000 people. Both trials were aimed at
determining whether the vaccine safely protects people from
Covid-19. AstraZeneca also had been testing the vaccine in
countries including South Africa and Brazil.
Write to Jenny Strasburg at jenny.strasburg@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 10, 2020 05:59 ET (09:59 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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