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Coronavirus: Rushing a vaccine could be counterproductive, expert warns

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID

*Giving emergency approval to a vaccine not thoroughly tested in clinical trials is not a good idea, says Dr. Anthony Fauci of NIAID

*AstraZeneca is ready to start producing its vaccine ─Report

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

As almost a dozen pharmaceutical companies are working at increased speed to develop a vaccine against the ravaging Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a health and infectious disease professional is advising caution.

ConsumerConnect gathered Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), in United States (US), warns that giving emergency approval to a vaccine that has not been thoroughly tested in clinical trials is not a good idea.

Dr. Fauci said doing so could disrupt trials on other vaccines that might prove to be more effective.

He stated that “the one thing that you would not want to see with a vaccine is getting an EUA (emergency use authorisation) before you have a signal of efficacy.”

Meanwhile, report says drugmaker AstraZeneca is ramping up vaccine production.

AstraZeneca experimental COVID-19 vaccine, AZD7442, is said to be in clinical trials, but the company is so confident in it that plans for production of large quantities of the vaccine have already begun.

Once the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) grants approval, the pharmaceutical giant says it will have the capacity to produce 3 billion doses for widespread distribution.

It was learnt that the vaccine is currently in a Phase I clinical trial.

Yet, should AZD7442 prove to be tolerated and have a favourable safety profile in the trial, AstraZeneca said it would progress it into larger late-stage Phase II and Phase III trials to evaluate its efficacy as a potential preventative and treatment approach against COVID-19.

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