PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) – The UK is the first country in the world to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is currently being tested at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
Local researchers told FOX 12 that they had just completed their registration phase with Oregon people. For Dr. Marcel Curlin, lead investigator of the OHSU study, said the rapid timeline and vaccine success in the UK is significant.
“You have that kind of collaboration across medical disciplines that you rarely see, so, both on a personal and professional level and also from a scientific perspective and a health care perspective, this is absolutely incredible,” Curlin told FOX. 12 Wednesday.
While the UK agreement doesn’t give the green light in the United States, Curlin says that’s a good sign.
“Before it is available to the public, it will go through the FDA process, which is an independent and separate review process. It will take a little longer. But coming against the background it has been approved in the UK is just good news,” Curlin said.
For participants who unwittingly received a placebo during clinical trials, Curlin said they would not miss the opportunity to receive the vaccine when it is available to the general public. There is no widely accessible version of the vaccine yet.
“If your doctor says to you, ‘Hey, we have a vaccine available now. We have Pfizer, or we have Moderna, or we have AstraZeneca or Jansen. Would you like to be vaccinated?’ And you have to make that decision. You have to make that decision knowing what’s going on in this study. So at that point, you’re not blind, and you can have an intelligent decision-making process with your doctor about what to do, ” said Curlin.
OHSU initially hoped to enroll hundreds of Oregon residents in the trial, and more than 13,000 people expressed interest.
But due to the fast-moving nature of the pandemic and the timeframe available to them, an OHSU spokesman said they could only enroll up to 300 people in trials.