AstraZeneca has begun a worldwide recall of its Covid-19 vaccine due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” that target new variants of the virus.
The message followed by the pharmaceutical company in March voluntarily withdrew its authorization to trade in the European Unionwhich is the approval to place a medicine on the market in the Member States.
On May 7, the European Medicines Agency issued a notice that the vaccine is no longer authorized for use.
In a statement, AstraZeneca said the decision was made because there are already a variety of newer vaccines that have been adapted to target variants of Covid-19. This led to a drop in demand for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is no longer manufactured or supplied.
“According to independent estimates, over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone and over 3 billion doses were delivered worldwide,” the statement said.
“Our efforts have been recognized by governments around the world and are widely regarded as a critical component in ending the global pandemic. We will now work with regulators and our partners to achieve a clear way forward to close this chapter and make a significant contribution to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Other countries have already stopped supplies of the vaccine. It has not been available for use in Australia since March 2023, although its use was already discontinued from June 2021 due to the widespread availability of newer vaccines.
AstraZeneca changed the name of its Covid vaccine to Vaxzevria in 2021. The vaccine was approved for use in people aged 18 and over, given as two injections, usually into the muscle of the upper arm, about three months apart. It is also used in some countries as a booster injection.
Vaxzevria consists of another virus in the adenovirus family modified to contain the gene for producing a protein from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The vaccine does not contain the virus itself and cannot cause the virus.
Although the vaccine has been found to be safe and effective in general, it carries the risk of a rare but serious side effect known as thrombocytopenia thrombosis, or TTS. The rare syndrome occurs in about two to three people in 100,000 who have been vaccinated with the Vaxzevria vaccine.
The Department of Epidemiology at Deakin University in Australia, Prof Catherine Bennett, said the vaccine had played a key role in the global fight against the virus, especially in the early days of the pandemic when limited vaccines were available.
“It has saved millions of lives and that should not be forgotten,” she said.
“That was a really important part of the initial global response. However, it was targeted at the original ancestral variants. We have now moved into a vaccine chain where we have products available that are chasing the variants that are emerging.
“There is also a change in the calculation of risk, given that the population is much more protected and although of course Covid still causes deaths, we are generally less vulnerable to the disease.”
The The latest Covid-19 vaccine advice has been issued by the World Health Organization in April advised that Covid-19 vaccine formulations should target the JN.1 lineage of the virus, which displaces existing variants of the XBB lineage.