Meanwhile, the two paused trials are reviving questions about adenoviral vectors, which have been used in laboratory, animal and human experiments for years. If concerns about side effects in experimental vaccines in trials using adenoviruses are validated, it could boost skepticism in the general public and raise questions for other drugmakers. Pauses to investigate side effects aren’t unusual in vaccine trials, which require a high safety bar because they’re taken by healthy people. Reactions to the Astra/Oxford vaccine in early studies were comparable to those seen in previous trials of other vaccines using adenoviruses, the company said. In the meantime, drug and vaccine developers continued to build vaccines around much smaller doses of adenoviruses.

Source: Mint October 18, 2020 02:37 UTC