Brazilian Doctor Dies Participating in AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Trial
Story Highlights A COVID-19 vaccine trial participant, who was a physician working with COVID-19 patients at hospitals in Brazil, has reportedly died from coronavirus infection complications. It has not been confirmed, but sources indicate the victim was given the trial “placebo” (a meningococcal vaccine) and not the experimental AZD1222 vaccine developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca […]
Half a Million Sharks Could Die to Produce Squalene Adjuvants for COVID-19 Vaccines
Story Highlights A shark conservation group is calling for alternatives to using squalene harvested from the liver of sharks as an adjuvant in COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Shark conservation advocates estimate that an additional 500,000 sharks will be killed every year should squalene adjuvanted coronavirus vaccines become licensed for global general use. The group is asking […]
Frontline Health Care Workers to Get Coronavirus Vaccine First
Who gets the [COVID-19] vaccine first? It’s the frontline health care workers—the final guidelines for vaccine distribution coming out from the National Academies today. Here’s how they break it down into essentially four groups. First, of course, high-risk workers in health care, first responders… Phase 1b includes high-risk individuals with underlying conditions, also older adults. […]
Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Provokes ‘COVID-Like Symptoms’ in Phase 3 Trial
Biotechnology firm Moderna, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts began a Phase 3 human clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of its experimental mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine on July 27, 2020. The randomized, placebo-controlled trial involves giving two 100-microgram doses of the vaccine to 28,618 volunteer participants over 18 years of age, including some elderly people […]
Pfizer Wants to Use Children in COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Trial
On Oct. 14, 2020, Pfizer, Inc. of New York City, New York announced it had received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enroll children in the Phase 3 human clinical trial on its experimental messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid) BNT162b1 vaccine for COVID-19. The trial, which last month was expanded to include adolescent […]
Johnson & Johnson Pauses Phase 3 COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Following ‘Unexplained Illness’
Story Highlights Weeks after Johnson & Johnson announced that their experimental COVID-19 vaccine was in final, Phase 3 testing, the company has paused the study to evaluate an unexplained illness in a study participant. AstraZeneca’s late-stage vaccine trial is also still on pause in the U.S. after two cases of a neurological illness arose in […]