Pharmaceutical giants, Astrazeneca says it is withdrawing its Covid-19 vaccines worldwide, after it admitted the drug could cause rare but life-threatening injuries.
The British-Swedish drug company had already withdrawn its licence to distribute the product which was branded Vaxzevria in the European Union three years ago. It emphasised that the withdrawal was due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” against new variants of the virus,
“As multiple variant Covid-19 vaccines have since been developed there’s a surplus of available updated vaccines,” AstraZeneca said in a statement adding that this resulted in a dip in demand for Vaxzevria, which it has ceased to produce.
It admitted that the vaccine could have deadly side effects after it faced a class action lawsuit in the UK which alleged that the vaccine was responsible for several deaths and injuries and sought damages up to £100 million for dozens of victims.
“It is admitted that the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS). The causal mechanism is not known,” AstraZeneca said in court documents in February, according to reports.
TTS is characterised by blood clots and low blood platelet counts in humans.
AstraZeneca’s developed the vaccine with Oxford University and was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. It was used in over 150 countries.
The World Health Organization also acknowledged that the vaccine could have fatal side effects. “A very rare adverse event called Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, involving unusual and severe blood clotting events associated with low platelet counts, has been reported after vaccination with this vaccine”, it said.
