Soriot sought to reassure investors after the company and its
partner confirmed earlier this week that they had temporarily stopped giving
people the experimental shot.
AstraZeneca
Plc Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said the coronavirus vaccine the
company is developing with the University of Oxford could still be ready before
the end of the year after pausing its trials due to a possible serious neurological
problem in one participant.
Speaking at an online
conference Thursday, Soriot
sought to reassure investors after the company and its partner confirmed
earlier this week that they had temporarily stopped giving people the
experimental shot.
The trial was
halted after a person in the UK who was participating in it got sick,
triggering a review of safety data. Though such interruptions are common in
vaccine studies, the drugmaker and its boss are facing questions about what
exactly caused the issue and whether it could be related to the shot.
“What we have here
is a special set of circumstances where the whole world becomes involved in the
conduct of a clinical trial,” Soriot said in his first public comments since
the trial was halted.
The decision on
whether to resume the study is in the hands of a group of independent experts
working to understand whether the patient’s illness was a coincidence or a
result of the vaccine. “The reality is we all have to be very patient and see
how it unfolds,” he said.
Astra shares
slipped 0.6% in London.
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