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AstraZeneca's COVID Vaccine On Hold: A Reminder Drug Development Is Never Straightforward

 
• By Jessica Merrill

The company – one of the frontrunners in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine – has voluntarily put a hold on the Phase III trial due to an adverse event. 

Stop barrier
AZ/Oxford vaccine on hold • Source: Shutterstock

AstraZeneca PLC and the University of Oxford have put a voluntary clinical trial hold on the Phase III trial testing their COVID-19 vaccine due to an adverse event. The companies confirmed the move in the evening on 8 September, only about a week after initiating the Phase III trial in the US.

While the development of several COVID-19 vaccines across the industry has been moving at an unprecedented pace and remarkably smoothly since the crisis unfolded, the news is a reminder that

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