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AstraZeneca is no longer authorized for use in Europe. The pharma giant was the first to request European authorization to withdraw its vaccine.
AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine Withdrawn in Europe
AstraZeneca applied to withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine from the European marketing authorization. On May 7, 2024, the European Commission granted the request and announced that the vaccine was no longer authorized for use.
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine was initially approved in January 2021 by the EMA. Weeks later, however, worries about the vaccine's safety intensified, leading to the suspension of its use in dozens of nations after a tiny number of inoculated individuals had strange but rare blood clots. Though uncertainties persisted, the EU regulator found that AstraZeneca's shot did not increase the overall risk of clotting.
A manufacturing error that researchers failed to disclose right away tainted some of the results of the vaccine's first large trial, which Britain used to approve it. Some governments first limited the vaccination to younger populations before changing their minds due to insufficient data regarding the vaccine's effectiveness in protecting older adults.
Because the AstraZeneca vaccine was easier to produce and distribute, billions of doses were given to developing nations through a coordinated effort run by the United Nations. However, subsequent research indicated that the more expensive messenger RNA vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech offered superior defense against COVID-19 and its several variations, leading most nations to adopt those immunizations.
In 2021, the national coronavirus immunization program in the United Kingdom primarily depended on AstraZeneca's vaccine, which was mainly developed by Oxford University scientists with substantial financial support from the government. However, the AstraZeneca vaccine is seldom used worldwide, and even Britain eventually had to purchase the mRNA vaccines for its COVID booster vaccination campaigns.
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AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Health Concerns
COVID vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax, and other companies underwent the necessary testing phases. The AstraZeneca medicine proved safe and effective during the phase 3 trials, which involved testing the vaccination on hundreds of participants.
Blood clot-related adverse events were first made public in February 2021. On March 18, 2021, the UK government and the pharmaceuticals regulator, the MHRA, released a statement about the drug's continued usage.
The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency both emphasized how the advantages of the vaccination far exceeded any potential concerns amid conjecture and research.
It is well known that COVID itself considerably raised the incidence of these associated blood clots (thrombocytopenia). Compared to any COVID-related vaccine, the odds of thrombocytopenic events after a COVID-19 infection were significantly higher, according to an August 2021 review of 30 million vaccinated individuals in the UK.
Aside from the blood clot concern, there was poor reporting in Germany published in January 2021 claiming that the AstraZeneca vaccine was only "8% effective in the elderly." May picked up the claim, but the public was later informed that the figure was a reference to the percentage of people over 65 years old in the study and not the efficacy measure of the drug.
While AstraZeneca is an excellent company, the mRNA versions - Pfizer and Moderna - exhibit superior efficacy and safety. mRNA vaccines are also simpler to update.
For Michael Head, the senior research fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton, the time for the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine may be over. However, it has proven to be a safe and effective vaccination and an essential component of the pandemic response.
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