On Wednesday, 08 May 2024, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced the withdrawal of the authorisation for AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria at the request of the marketing authorisation holder, AstraZeneca.

The EMA had initially approved AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021. However, concerns about its safety arose when several countries suspended its use due to blood clots in a few vaccinated individuals. Although the EU regulator determined that the vaccine did not "significantly increase the overall risk of blood clots," serious doubts remained.

AstraZeneca's major trial results, which Britain used to authorise the vaccine, were compromised by a manufacturing error that researchers did not promptly acknowledge.

Inadequate data regarding the vaccine's effectiveness in older people led some countries to initially limit its use to younger populations before reversing course later.

Despite billions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine being distributed to poorer countries through a U.N. coordinated program due to its cost-effectiveness and ease of production and distribution, subsequent studies suggested that the pricier mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna provided "better protection" against COVID-19 and its various variants, causing most countries to adopt those vaccines.

In 2021, Britain heavily relied on AstraZeneca's vaccine for its national COVID-19 immunisation program, which was primarily developed by scientists at Oxford University with substantial government funding.

However, Britain later turned to purchasing mRNA vaccines for its COVID-19 booster vaccination programs.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is now seldom used worldwide.

08 May 2024