Government regulators in the United Kingdom have ordered Cambridge-based pharma AstraZeneca to pause development of its novel-coronavirus vaccine candidate after a patient in the U.K. apparently had an unspecified adverse reaction to the vaccine.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the stand-down order came from the U.K. Data Safety Monitoring Board, which oversees pharmaceutical trials. The U.K. board coordinated with American regulators in making its decision, HHS stated.
A “standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data,” a spokesperson for AstraZeneca told Statnews.