Johnson & Johnson pauses COVID vaccine trial as participant becomes ill

Johnson & Johnson said Monday 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, reports AFP.

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