Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has requested the withdrawal of European authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
In an update posted on its website on Wednesday, the EMA stated that the approval for AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria vaccine had been withdrawn “at the request of the marketing authorization holder.”
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine received approval from the EMA in January 2021. However, the vaccine faced suspensions in dozens of countries after reports of rare but unusual blood clots in a small number of vaccinated individuals. While the European regulator concluded that AstraZeneca’s vaccine did not increase the overall risk of blood clots, lingering doubts persisted.
The partial results of its initial large-scale trial, upon which the UK relied to authorize the vaccine, were overshadowed by a manufacturing error that researchers did not immediately acknowledge. Insufficient data regarding the vaccine’s efficacy in elderly individuals led some countries to initially restrict its use to younger populations before reversing their decision.
Billions of doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine were distributed to the poorest countries as part of a UN-coordinated program due to its affordability and ease of production and distribution. However, subsequent studies suggested that the more expensive mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna provided better protection against COVID-19 and its numerous variants, leading most countries to transition to these vaccines.
In 2021, the UK’s national coronavirus vaccination program heavily relied on AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which was largely developed by scientists at the University of Oxford with significant financial support from the government. However, even the UK later procured mRNA vaccines for its Covid booster shot programs, and AstraZeneca’s vaccine is now rarely used worldwide.