Global trials of a potential Covid-19 vaccine have been halted after one recipient fell seriously ill.
The pause has prompted fears of a delay to the roll-out of the vaccine, until now seen as a front-runner – and dented the share price of its manufacturer AstraZeneca.
What just happened?
The vaccine, developed by scientists at University of Oxford and being tested by AstraZeneca, is one of nine currently undergoing so-called Phase 3 trials, which focus on the effectiveness of vaccines in protecting against infection.
Safety is continually monitored and the highly-respected medical website, STAT, has reported that all trials of the vaccine have been halted following a "suspected serious adverse reaction" in a participant in the UK.
This has now been confirmed by AstraZeneca.
How serious is it?
According to the company, the participant developed “an unexplained illness”, but is reportedly expected to recover. Crucially, it remains unclear whether it is a reaction that might be common among similar patients, some rare side effect or the result of some other unrelated condition.
AstraZeneca has stressed that it voluntarily halted all trials, and has been described as primarily driven by “an abundance of caution”. Many experts view the current pause as evidence the trials are being performed with due diligence, free from commercial or political pressure.
Are vaccine trials often paused?
As vaccines are designed to be taken up by vast numbers of people, trials typically involve many thousands of volunteers in an attempt to detect relatively rare side effects.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will ultimately be tested in 50,000 people with diverse racial, ethnic and medical backgrounds.
As such, it’s not uncommon for such trials to be put on pause. It happened a decade ago during trials of the now-widely used HPV vaccine, and has also already happened before with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
What happens next?
The details of the incident are being reviewed by an independent trial monitoring team. The investigation will include reviews of reports from all the trials looking for any similar incidents. Once completed, the results will be passed to official regulators for a final decision on whether the trial can restart. This could be announced in a matter of days.
This week, AstraZeneca became one of nine vaccine manufacturers to sign a “historic pledge” under which they will only apply for regulatory approval if their vaccines pass all the standard phases of clinical trials. This sets them apart from rivals in China and Russia, which are rolling out vaccines still listed as under test.
The US Food and Drug Administration has also hinted that it might be willing to expedite vaccine approval. Similar moves on unproven Covid-19 treatments have previously led the FDA having to make embarrassing U-turns.
Could the vaccine still fail?
Yes. Studies of past vaccine trials suggest that only 1 in 3 pass through all the stages of testing to win regulatory approval.
Vaccines having reached Phase 3 do have a higher success rate of around 85 per cent. However, there is no precedent for what is being attempted in the global quest to develop a vaccine against Covid-19.
And even vaccines that do get regulatory approval often have disappointing levels of effectiveness.
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Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
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Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The language of diplomacy in 1853
Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity Agreed Upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast on Behalf of Themselves, Their Heirs and Successors Under the Mediation of the Resident of the Persian Gulf, 1853
(This treaty gave the region the name “Trucial States”.)
We, whose seals are hereunto affixed, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggar, Chief of Rassool-Kheimah, Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon, Chief of Aboo Dhebbee, Sheikh Saeed bin Buyte, Chief of Debay, Sheikh Hamid bin Rashed, Chief of Ejman, Sheikh Abdoola bin Rashed, Chief of Umm-ool-Keiweyn, having experienced for a series of years the benefits and advantages resulting from a maritime truce contracted amongst ourselves under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf and renewed from time to time up to the present period, and being fully impressed, therefore, with a sense of evil consequence formerly arising, from the prosecution of our feuds at sea, whereby our subjects and dependants were prevented from carrying on the pearl fishery in security, and were exposed to interruption and molestation when passing on their lawful occasions, accordingly, we, as aforesaid have determined, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, to conclude together a lasting and inviolable peace from this time forth in perpetuity.
Taken from Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: the Imperial Oasis, by Clive Leatherdale
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