DAWN.COM

Today's Paper | March 17, 2026

Published 13 Oct, 2020 09:11am

Johnson & Johnson pauses Covid vaccine trial as participant becomes ill

Johnson & Johnson said it had temporarily halted its Covid-19 vaccine trial because one of its participants had become sick.

“We have temporarily paused further dosing in all our Covid-19 vaccine candidate clinical trials, including the Phase 3 ENSEMBLE trial, due to an unexplained illness in a study participant,” the company said in a statement.

The pause means the enrollment system has been closed for the 60,000-patient clinical trial while the independent patient safety committee is convened, AFP reported.

J&J said that serious adverse events (SAEs), such as accidents or illnesses, are “an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies.” Company guidelines allow them to pause a study to determine if the SAE was related to the drug in question and whether to resume study.

Read Comments

Punjab govt to take legal action against those involved in 'malicious campaign' over use of official jet Next Story