PARIS, Feb 3 (AFP) - France's national AIDS research agency (ANRS) has suspended a vaccine trial after a US patient taking part in a study of the same vaccine developed a neurological disorder, the agency's director said Thursday.
In an interview with Le Figaro newspaper, ANRS director Michel Kazatchkine said the trial testing the viability of the preventive VAC 18 vaccine, begun in September, was suspended in late December.
The French agency stopped its study after the US Food and Drug Administration announced it had halted a similar trial after a 40-year-old patient was hospitalized for myelitis, or inflammation of the spinal cord.
Kazatchkine told Le Figaro that the suspension of the vaccine trial "does not in any way call into question the strategy pursued by ANRS for the past 10 years," adding that experts were deciding whether to resume the testing.
Chantal Belorgey, who is in charge of clinical trials at the French agency for the safety of health care products, said the complication observed in the US study remained unexplained.
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