A Rio de Janeiro man who was participating in the AstraZeneca trials of a coronavirus vaccine has died of complications from Covid-19, Brazil’s health authorities have announced.
Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária, ANVISA), said on Wednesday that it had received the news of the death on October 19, along with a recommendation that the study be continued.
Brazilian media did not identify the deceased by name, saying only he was 28 years old and either a doctor or a medical student.
It remains unknown whether the man was taking the AstraZeneca vaccine client or was part of a control group taking the placebo. The clinical data has to be kept confidential to protect the participants and the integrity of the study, ANVISA said in a statement.
The British-Swedish pharma multinational is conducting a stage three trial of its Covid-19 vaccine in partnership with Oxford. The study is taking place in Brazil, UK, India and South Africa. In September, the UK study was paused out of safety concerns, due to an unspecified illness of one of the participants.
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