AstraZeneca Pauses Coronavirus Vaccine Trial After Volunteer’s “Unexplained Illness”

AstraZeneca Pauses Coronavirus Vaccine Trial After Volunteer’s “Unexplained Illness”

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has halted coronavirus vaccine trials after a “serious suspected adverse reaction in a participant,” according to the company.

The New York Times reports: 

"The pause, which was first reported by STAT, will allow AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish company, to conduct a safety review and investigate whether the vaccine caused the illness. How long the hold will last is unclear.

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Drug companies are racing to complete a coronavirus vaccine that could bring an end to a pandemic that has already claimed more than 890,000 lives globally. AstraZeneca is a front-runner, with late-stage clinical trials underway around the world, and has said it hoped to have a vaccine ready before the end of the year. If the cause of the reaction turns out to be related to the vaccine, those efforts could be derailed.

Late-stage vaccine testing remains crucial, as large trials can turn up rare but serious side effects that would surface only if many thousands of people received a vaccine."

Market Impact

“AstraZeneca stock falls as drugmaker pauses vaccine trial after volunteer’s ‘unexplained illness,’” reported MarketWatch early Wednesday morning. 

According to MarketWatch:

‘“[The] report in the New York Times said that the volunteer in the U.K. trial received a diagnosis of transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord. “However, the timing of this diagnosis, and whether it was directly linked to AstraZeneca’s vaccine, is still unknown,” the NY Times said. The British drugmaker declined to the comment on the location and the diagnosis.

Shares in AstraZeneca AZN, +2.10%, which fell 6% in New York in after-hours trading on Tuesday.