A volunteer who participated in the tests of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford against Covid-19 died in Brazil, official sources announced on Wednesday, without specifying whether he had received the vaccine or a placebo.
This is the first death of a volunteer taking part in testing for one of the many ongoing vaccine trials around the world.
But Oxford assured that phase 3 of the tests of this vaccine developed with the AstraZeneca laboratory would continue, an independent committee having concluded that they did not present a risk for the health of the volunteers.
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"After the analysis of this case in Brazil, there were no concerns about the safety of these clinical tests and the independent committee, as well as the Brazilian regulatory agency, recommended the continuation of these tests"
, explained the university in a statement.
AstraZeneca said it
"cannot comment on individual cases"
, but
"confirms that all protocols have been followed"
.
The Bloomberg agency and the Brazilian newspaper
O Globo
said they had obtained confirmation from anonymous sources linked to the tests that the victim had received a dose of placebo and not the vaccine under development.
During these tests in phase 3, the last before approval, a placebo is injected into half of the volunteers, designated as the
“control group”
.
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The deceased Brazilian has been identified by several media as a 28-year-old doctor who was on the front lines of the fight against the pandemic.
He would have died of complications related to Covid-19.
He worked in two hospitals in Rio de Janeiro and had graduated from medical school last year.
Brazilian regulatory agency Anvisa confirmed that it was
"notified of this case on October 19"
and received the report of the independent commission.
In September, testing of the Oxford vaccine was suspended after the appearance of a
"potentially unexplained illness"
in a volunteer in the United Kingdom.
But the independent committee concluded that it was not a side effect of the vaccine.
Some 20,000 volunteers took part in these tests in several countries, including 8,000 in Brazil, the second country most affected by the virus, with nearly 155,000 deaths.
