AstraZeneca CEO
Ultimately, the public will have to trust regulators around the world and the independent experts that oversee drug trials, Soriot said during a panel discussion sponsored by the
“You’ve got to trust that the experts whose job it is to monitor these trials and these developments are doing a good job,? Soriot said. “Medicine should not be practiced for the media, it should be practiced by experts.”
The comments come as scientists scramble to develop a vaccine that would protect the public from a pandemic that has killed nearly 1 million people worldwide and as numerous countries battle against a surge in cases.
But public health experts have expressed concern that political pressure on regulators to quickly approve vaccines will undermine public confidence in their safety and effectiveness.
Public concern about a vaccine could be disastrous to its widespread acceptance and undermine efforts to vaccinate enough people to stop transmission of COVID-19.
Soriot pointed out that the vaccines being developed by his company and others must be approved by regulators around the world, not just the
“You really would have to love conspiracy theories to believe that all regulators around the world will all agree to approve a vaccine that is not safe and effective,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that every country would do that, so you’re going to have several sets of eyes from different countries looking at this data.”
The
Against this backdrop, drugmakers have come under pressure to release more incremental information on the progress of their vaccine trials - information that they normally wouldn’t release until the trials are complete.
The heat only increased after an AstraZeneca trial was put on hold while it investigated whether a British volunteer’s illness was a side effect or a coincidence. The trial remains on hold in
Soriot and Stoffels said drugmakers are looking at other how they can increase transparency given the “very special set of circumstances” surrounding the potential COVID-19 vaccines. AstraZeneca,
“We are discussing with other companies as an industry what kind of transparency could we offer without compromising patient privacy, of course, but also without compromising the trial itself,” Soriot said. “Because if you disclose … too much information you can actually compromise the clinical trial itself.”
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