In a significant move, pharma giant AstraZeneca has withdrawn its Covid-19 vaccine world-wide, days after it was reported that the British pharmaceutical company admitted that the vaccine can cause rare side effects.
The vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, was produced by the Serum Institute of India as Covishield.
Recently, AstraZeneca admitted that the vaccine developed with the University of Oxford to protect against Covid-19 may cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) in “very rare cases”.
The company voluntarily withdrew its marketing authorisation of its Covid vaccine, sold as Covishield in India and Vaxzevria in Europe. It can now no longer be used in the European Union, the Telegraph reported.
While the company made the application to withdraw the vaccine on March 5, it came into effect on Tuesday.
The British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical is also being sued by more than 50 alleged victims and grieving relatives in a High Court case in the UK.
However, AstraZeneca noted that the vaccine is being withdrawn for “commercial reasons” and is “not linked to the court case”, and that “the timing was pure coincidence”.
Because of multiple Covid variants and related-vaccines, “there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied. AstraZeneca has therefore decided to initiate withdrawal of the marketing authorisations for Vaxzevria within Europe,” the company said in a statement.
The company noted that it will collaborate with global regulatory authorities “to initiate marketing authorisation withdrawals for Vaxzevria, where no future commercial demand for the vaccine is expected”.
(With Inputs from IANS)