Why is AstraZeneca pulling a Covid vaccine that ‘saved over 6.5 million lives’?

Almost three and a half years after 82-year-old Brian Pinker became the first person to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid, the jab has been withdrawn globally.

No new doses will be manufactured or supplied.

The company has blamed a lack of demand as newer options became available, targeting more recent variants.

But it has also been dogged with headlines about a rare side effect, with the vaccine linked to 81 deaths in the UK.

AstraZeneca is said to have acknowledged the potentially deadly side effect causing blood clots and low platelets for the first time in court documents earlier this year.

The move this week comes after the European Medicines Agency issued a notice that the vaccine is no longer authorised for use in its area.

Why has AstraZeneca withdrawn its Covid vaccine?

In a statement, the company said the worldwide withdrawal was for commercial reasons, due to a ‘surplus of available updated vaccines’.

A spokesperson said ‘We are incredibly proud of the role Vaxzevria played in ending the global pandemic.

‘According to independent estimates, over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone and over three billion doses were supplied globally.  

‘Our efforts have been recognised by governments around the world and are widely regarded as being a critical component of ending the global pandemic. 

‘As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines.

‘This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzervria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied.’

Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton, said the vaccine had been ‘a key part of the pandemic response for most countries around the world’ and there would have been ‘far more deaths, hospitalisations, illness and transmission, if we hadn’t had the AstraZeneca vaccine’.

He said: ‘For example, during the humanitarian crises in India when the Delta variant emerged, India was the main producer of the AstraZeneca vaccine at that time (amid global shortages and very high Covid burdens), it will have saved so many lives in India alone across 2021 and 2022.

‘There are known adverse events, such as the blood clots, but these are rare, and the safety profile is overall very good. For comparison, the accepted rate of blood clots is much higher in medicines prescribed in areas of women’s health, such as the combined pill.

‘The key reason for the withdrawal is likely to be that other Covid vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, are essentially better products. AstraZeneca is very good, but the mRNA products (and probably Novavax too) are better.

‘With that, orders for the AstraZeneca vaccine are probably much lower now than they were in previous years, so it’s not worth a longer-term investment on the part of the manufacturers.’

What side effects did they admit?

Court documents from a class action lawsuit of around 50 victims reportedly show the company acknowledging for the first time that the vaccine can cause a rare and serious side effect.

According to the Telegraph, AstraZeneca said in court documents in February: ‘It is admitted that the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS. The causal mechanism is not known.’

The side effect TTS stands for Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, which can cause blood clots and low blood platelet counts.

Twelve families are said to have dropped out of legal action fearing they would not succeed, because their loved ones received the jab after a line on potential side effects was added to the leaflet about it given out at vaccination centres from April 2021.

It read that ‘extremely rare cases of blood clots with low levels of platelets have been observed following vaccination’.

However, the case continues for families whose loved ones received the jab before this note was added.

What other Covid vaccines are still available?

The other original Covid vaccine, made by Pfizer/BioNTech, is still available in an updated form.

Also in use by the NHS is the Moderna (Spikevax) jab.

Globally, there are many more vaccines and those authorised in the EU include Bimervax, Jcovden and Nuvaxovid,

Last year, China approved its first mRNA vaccine made by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group having previously relied on domestic vaccines using a more traditional method such as Sinopharm.