Coronavirus: as the pursuit for a vaccine accelerates, calls grow for transparency in clinical trials

Name: China prepares for coronavirus vaccine mass production though clinical trials are not yet complete
Uploaded: 2020-09-22T04:00:08.000Z
Duration: 1 min 39 s
Description: China prepares for coronavirus vaccine mass production though clinical trials are not yet complete

Speed of development raises concerns about possible compromises in safety, experts note, and public trust will be essential for widespread acceptance

Pfizer, Moderna and AstroZeneca have released information about protocols usually kept confidential

Reading Time:3 minutes

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A researcher at the Sinovac Biotech facilities in Beijing prepares a test on an experimental vaccine for the Covid-19 coronavirus. Photo: AFP

Simone McCarthy

Published: 12:00pm, 22 Sep 2020Updated: 9:19am, 23 Sep 2020

Medical experts are insisting that transparency becomes an absolute priority in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine, in what may be the quickest such development in history.

The political pressure to produce a successful vaccine swiftly for a disease that has already caused nearly a million deaths globally has raised public concerns, even as regulators and health officials around the world have repeatedly issued assurances that safety will not be compromised.

Boosting public trust in vaccines requires transparency, scientists and medical experts argue, urging pharmaceutical companies to release more information about their clinical trials and to avoid cutting corners in the traditional regulatory process.

“Transparency in clinical trials, price negotiations and research and development investments is of paramount importance for ensuring equitable and fair access to vaccines,” The Lancet Covid-19 Commission, an advisory group backed by the British medical journal, wrote last week.

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China prepares for coronavirus vaccine mass production though clinical trials are not yet complete

On Thursday, two American vaccine developers, Pfizer and Moderna, appeared to respond to such calls and released the details of clinical trial protocols they will use to evaluate their candidates – information typically kept confidential during trials. The British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has since followed suit.

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