A volunteer who participated in testing a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has died in Brazil. This was reported by the national health surveillance agency Anvisa.
The department noted that the cause of death is not disclosed “for reasons of ethics and confidentiality,” and does not provide data on whether the volunteer received a placebo or the drug itself. In turn, the Brazilian newspaper Globo reported the death of a 28-year-old volunteer as a result of complications from COVID-19.
It was noted that the International Vaccine Safety Assessment Committee on Monday, October 19, notified the Brazilian National Sanitary Inspection Agency about the incident and proposed to continue the study, writes Gazeta.Ru.
According to Bloomberg, the deceased young man received a placebo.
In total, eight thousand people in Brazil are participating in an international research program for this drug, half of whom received a dose of the Oxford vaccine, and the other half received a placebo.
The third phase of vaccine trials, which is being developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in collaboration with scientists from the University of Oxford, began in the United States in late August, but in September the company suspended trials of the drug worldwide. The reason was an unexplained illness in one of the UK volunteers.