Johnson & Johnson has halted its clinical trials after one of the test subjects had fallen ill due to an unexplained illness. It is one of the many companies in the world that had been testing out their experimental COVID-19 vaccine, and this pause is set to affect all of the forthcoming trials for this vaccine including their large phase 3 trial that has been going on since September.
It is to be noted that an independent monitoring board that monitors data safety is closely watching the subject’s illness. Notably, the company refused to disclose any more information citing the need to respect the person’s privacy.
This is not the first company that halted the trial due to safety issues. AstraZeneca halted the trial in September due to a similar reason in the United Kingdom. The company’s trial continues to go on in the UK, but the US study has been put on hold.
J&J’s vaccine is one of the most advanced Covid-19 shots in development, among just a handful that had entered the last stage of testing in the U.S., after entrants from AstraZeneca, Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. J&J co-developed the vaccine with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.