thevaccinereaction--2020-09-14--AstraZeneca Halts, Resumes COVID-19 Vaccine Trial After Serious Neurological Event

Multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced on Sept. 8 , 2020 that it was putting a hold on a Phase 3 clinical trial testing its experimental AZD1222 ( ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 ) COVID-19 vaccine due to a suspected very serious adverse reaction in a female participant in the United Kingdom.1 In a private conference call on Sept. 9 , AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot stated that the woman suffered symptoms consistent with a rare but serious neurological disorder called transverse myelitis , which causes inflammation of the spinal cord.2 Soriot also confirmed that the participant was injected with the company ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Four days later , AstraZeneca released a statement3 that the trial in the U.K. would resume following confirmation by the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority ( MHRA ) ( Britain ’ s equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ) that it was safe to do so .
They provided no further details .
Researchers running other clinical trials are now looking for similar cases of neurological reactions by combing through databases.4 “ What we have here is a special set of circumstances where the whole world becomes involved in the conduct of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ The reality is we all have to be very patient and see how it unfolds.
” 5 AstraZeneca ’ s public statements about the temporary pause in its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial contain few details , and drug company officials will not publicly confirm that this is the second time it has stopped trials to investigate potential adverse health events occurring among participants.6 A woman in the U.K. trial was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in July , but the company said that serious adverse event , which triggered the first clinical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the vaccine.7 AstraZeneca ’ s clinical trial is the first Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial publicly acknowledged to have been put on hold .
According to the National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) , such holds are not uncommon .
Francis Collins , MD , director of the NIH , told a U.S. Senate panel last week : To have a clinical hold , as has been placed on AstraZeneca as of yesterday , because of a single serious adverse event is not at all unprecedented .
This certainly happens in any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thousands of people invested in taking part , some of them may get ill and you always have to try to figure out : Is that because of the vaccine , or were they going to get that illness anyway ?
8 In April , Oxford University ’ s Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group partnered with AstraZeneca to develop , manufacture , and distribute ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 , which uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus ( adenovirus ) that causes infections in chimpanzees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein.9 AstraZeneca , which sponsors the clinical trials , began Phase 3 trials in the U.S. in late August .
Phase 3 trials confirm and expand the evidence base for safety and efficacy of Phase 1 and 2 trials .
The U.S. trial , which aims to enroll about 30,000 participants , is currently taking place at 62 sites across the country , according to clinicaltrials.gov , a government registry , though some sites have not yet started enrolling participants .
Simultaneously conducted Phase 2/3 trials were previously started in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Africa.10 Transverse Myelitis Is A Rare But Serious Neurological Disorder Transverse myelitis involves inflammation of the spinal cord , which carries signals to and from the brain through nerves that extend from each side of the spinal cord and connect to nerves elsewhere in the body .
Symptoms of transverse myelitis include pain that can be sharp or blunt and may shoot down arms and legs or wrap around the trunk or chest ; sensory problems such as tingling , numbness , pricking , coldness , burning and sensitivity to touch or temperature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the arms causing loss of balance , difficulty walking , and loss of function , which may develop into paralysis ; bladder and bowel problems such as constipation , incontinence , or frequent need to urinate ; and sexual dysfunction .
These problems may develop suddenly over a period of hours , or over days or weeks.11 About 1,400 new cases of transverse myelitis are diagnosed each year in the United States .
Although some people recover from transverse myelitis with minor or no residual problems , the healing process may take months @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impairments that affect their ability to perform ordinary tasks of daily living .
There is no cure for transverse myelitis.12 A 2018 study published in the journal Neurology , which examined evidence for a causal relationship between transverse myelitis and vaccination , concluded that : “ the unbalanced distribution of these cases in the first 6 weeks after vaccination suggests that the association between vaccination and some cases may not be coincidental .
Work is in progress to determine association of individual vaccine types with the course of TM.
” 13 High Percentage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Preliminary results of the AstraZeneca ’ s Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials were published in The Lancet14 in July 2020 .
There were 1,077 healthy adults ages 18 to 55 , who were randomly given either the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine or the meningococcal conjugate ( MenACWY ) vaccine .
Local and systemic reactions were more common in the trial group given the experimental COVID-19 vaccine , and a portion of both groups received prophylactic paracetamol ( acetaminophen ) before vaccinations were administered .
Fatigue and headache were the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was reported in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 group by 70 percent of the participants , who were not give paracetamol prior to vaccination , and in the MenACWY group by 48 percent of the participants without paracetamol .
Headaches were reported in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 group by 68 percent of the participants without paracetamol and 61 percent with paracetamol and in the MenACWY group by 41 percent of the participants without paracetamol and 37 percent of the participants with paracetamol .
Other systemic adverse reactions were common in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine group : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chills—56 percent , and feeling feverish—51 percent .
In the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine group , 18 percent of participants without paracetamol and 16 percent of participants with paracetamol reported a temperature of at least 100.4°F , and two percent of patients without paracetamol had a temperature of at least 102.2°F .
In comparison , less than one percent of those receiving MenACWY reported a fever of at least 100.4°F , none of whom were receiving prophylactic paracetamol .
The severity and intensity of local and systemic reactions was highest on the first day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vaccine Trial Coincides with Historic Safety Pledge by Vaccine Companies AstaZeneca put its trial on hold on Sunday , Sept. 6 , but it was only made public following a news leak15 late on Tuesday , Sept. 8 , the same day as nine pharmaceutical companies , including AstroZeneca , signed an historic pledge “ to make the safety and well-being of vaccinated individuals the top priority in development of the first COVID-19 vaccines.
” 16 According to STAT News , the pledge was “ an apparent attempt to provide public reassurance despite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vaccine development process is politically tainted.
” 17 In May the U.S. government pledged to commit up to $ 1.2 billion to AstraZeneca to develop a coronavirus vaccine and to obtain at least 300 million doses of any COVID-19 vaccine the corporation gets licensed in 2020 .
The arrangement with AstraZeneca is labeled a public-private partnership and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority ( BARDA ) will provide technology transfers and scaled-up manufacturing.18