LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Britain's Health Secretary Matt
Hancock said on Wednesday that AstraZeneca's decision to pause
its coronavirus vaccine trials was a challenge but would not
necessarily set back efforts to develop a vaccine.
AstraZeneca Plc said it had paused global trials,
including large late-stage trials, of its experimental
coronavirus vaccine due to an unexplained illness in a study
participant.
"It is obviously a challenge to this particular vaccine
trial," Hancock said on Sky News when asked about the pause in
the trial. "It's not actually the first time this has happened
to the Oxford vaccine."
Asked whether it would set back the vaccine development
process, he said: "Not necessarily, it depends on what they find
when they do the investigation."
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Estelle Shirbon; editing by
Michael Holden)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
