NEW DELHI: Days after AstraZeneca admitted for the first time in court documents that their Covid-19 vaccine can cause a rare and dangerous side effect, the British pharma giant announced that they are withdrawing it globally.
The global pharma giant, in collaboration with The University of Oxford, developed the AZD1222 vaccine after the Coronavirus outbreak in 2020. It said that they are ‘incredibly proud’ of the vaccine, but it had made a commercial decision to withdraw it.
In India and other low-and-middle-income countries, it was manufactured and supplied under Covishield by the Serum Institute of India (SII) through a licence from the university and the Swedish-British drugmaker.
In its statement, AstraZeneca said, “As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed, there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This surplus has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied.”
The vaccine was superseded by updated vaccines that tackle new variants, the pharma company said.
According to an SII spokesperson, with India achieving high vaccination rates in 2021 and 2022, coupled with the emergence of new mutant variant strains, the demand for previous vaccines diminished significantly.
“Consequently, since December 2021, we have stopped the manufacturing and supply of additional doses of Covishield,” the official said.
“We fully understand the ongoing concerns and it’s crucial to emphasize our commitment to transparency and safety. From the outset, we have disclosed all rare to very rare side effects, including Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, in the packaging insert in 2021,” he added.
