RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Oxford vaccine trials in Brazil are continuing at a speedy pace. To date, at least 5,000 volunteers have been administered the drug – or a placebo drug – and have not presented any serious adverse reactions.
According to the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), the studies are progressing well, uneventfully. The immunizer is being developed by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in partnership with Oxford University.
Less than a month ago, the vaccine trials in Brazil were suspended for a few days on suspicion that the vaccine had caused serious adverse effects on a volunteer in the United Kingdom. After an independent safety committee review, it was recommended that trials be continued as normal.
The study was restarted on September 14th, when 4,600 people had already been vaccinated. In a little over two weeks, the increase of newly vaccinated volunteers was approximately ten percent.
The vaccine is currently being tested in five Brazilian states: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul, and Rio Grande do Norte. In all, there are 10,000 volunteers part of the study in Brazil.
Last Thursday, October 1st, Astrazeneca and Oxford University submitted the initial registration documents to the National Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA). This is an ongoing process that may expedite the release of the vaccine to the population. But this will only be the case once the laboratories can prove the drug’s safety and efficacy.
Epidemic data
On Friday, October 2nd, Brazil recorded a weekly rolling average of 27,273 cases and 693 deaths as a result of Covid-19. These figures consider data from the past seven days added up and divided by seven. This allows assessing the development or deceleration of the pandemic as it offsets the backlog of notifications during the weekend.
Source: Veja