Brazilian Man Volunteering Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Dies
Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency Says Trials Will Not Stop
WEB DESK: A youngster volunteering in a clinical trial of a vaccine against the coronavirus died on Wednesday.
Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) confirmed the death but said that the vaccine, developed by the United Kingdom (UK) based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University, would continue to be tested on the volunteers.
No further details about the victim were released as ANVISA that cited the confidentiality of the volunteers. However, CNN reported the victim to be a 28-year-old man who lived in Rio de Janeiro.
Contending trial continuation, the regulator said it was not yet developed whether the volunteer had received the vaccine or the placebo that led to his death.
Oxford also confirmed that it would keep testing.
“Following careful assessment of this case in Brazil, there have been no concerns about the safety of the clinical trial, and the independent review in addition to the Brazilian regulator have recommended that the trial should continue,” Oxford University officials maintained.
Earlier, the United States (US) had also suspended trials of the vaccine from AstraZeneca after a patient in the UK trial reported serious illness.
