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In a major development, the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine is being withdrawn worldwide. This comes after the pharma giant admitted for the first time that it can cause rare and dangerous side effect.
It is learnt that the application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 itself and it can no longer be used in the European Union.
But AstraZeneca has maintained that the vaccine was being removed from markets for commercial reasons.
Widely provided under the name ‘Vaxzevria’, the vaccine has come under intense scrutiny in recent months over a very rare side effect, which causes blood clots and low blood platelet counts.
AstraZeneca is being sued by more than 50 alleged victims and grieving relatives in a High Court case. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker stated, “As multiple, variant Covid-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines”. The company then confirmed a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied.
AstraZeneca had collaborated with the University of Oxford to create the vaccine. In India, the drugmaker had collaborated with the Serum Institute of India (SII), the largest vaccine producer globally, to provide the vaccine (Covishield) to the Indian government.
