There were recent reports stating that pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca had paused the COVID-19 vaccine trials in United Kingdom after a volunteer developed unexplained illness. But the Serum Institute of India said that the COVID-19 trials in India have not faced any issue so far and will be continued.
Addressing the issue, Serum Institute of India said, “We can’t comment much on the UK trials, but they have been pushed for further review and they hope to restart soon. As far as the Indian trials are concerned, it is continuing and we have faced no issues at all.”
A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said in a statement that “We voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee. This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.”
AstraZeneca has signed a pact with Serum Institute of India for manufacturing a billion doses of the vaccine at its Pune facility.
