May 8 (Punjab Khabarnama) : In a landmark move, pharma giant AstraZeneca has recalled its Covid-19 vaccine, developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, worldwide, months after it admitted in a UK court about its potential rare blood clot side effect. .
The company has voluntarily withdrawn the “marketing rights” of its Covid vaccine, which was sold as CoviShield in India and Vaxzevria in Europe. It can no longer be used in the European Union.
While the company applied to withdraw the vaccine on March 5, it took effect from Tuesday.
Credited with saving more than six million lives, AstraZeneca admitted in a legal document filed in the High Court in February that its Covid vaccine could cause TTS ‘in rare cases,’ the report said.
Thrombotic thrombocytopenic syndrome (TTS) is a rare side effect that can cause blood clots and low blood platelet counts in people, linked to at least 81 deaths in the UK as well as hundreds of serious injuries.
The British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical is also being sued in a High Court case in the UK by more than 50 alleged victims and bereaved relatives.
However, AstraZeneca noted that the vaccine was being withdrawn for “commercial reasons” and was “not connected to the court case”, and that “the timing was purely coincidental”.
Due to the multiple variants of Covid and related vaccines, “there is a surplus of updated vaccines available. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer manufactured or supplied. AstraZeneca has withdrawn marketing for it. has decided to. rights to Vaxxaveria within Europe,” the company said in a statement.
The company noted that it will cooperate with global regulatory authorities to initiate the withdrawal of marketing authorization for Vaxzevria where commercial demand for the vaccine is not expected in the future.
