Despite its profit growth, the pharmaceutical laboratory has reported a steady decline in sales of drugs linked to Covid-19 for months.
AstraZeneca, a British pharmaceutical company, declared on Wednesday, May 8, that it is stopping the sale of Vaxzevria, the Covid-19 vaccine that was initially introduced to the market during the pandemic. In response to differing virus strains, the group stated in a press release that there was a “surplus of up-to-date vaccines” and that there was “decreased demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer manufactured or distributed.”
The European Medicines Authority, the EMA, wrote on its website on Tuesday that the marketing authorization for Vaxzevria was withdrawn “at the request of the marketing authorization holder”, such as pharmaceutical laboratories.
Rare cases of thrombosis
If AstraZeneca‘s profit jumped 21% year-on-year in the first quarter, driven particularly by oncology, the group has been reporting for months a constant decline in sales of drugs linked to covid. Numerous obstacles had been faced by its Covid-19 vaccine, including the denial of a marketing approval that never materialized in the US. In Europe, it also had delivery issues, and after a few deaths, there were concerns about elevated thrombosis risks.
AstraZeneca said it updated information on Vaxzevria in April 2021, in agreement with the British regulator MHRA, to include the possibility that it could trigger thrombosis in rare cases. The United Kingdom, which initially relied on Vaxzevria to launch its anti-Covid vaccine campaign, has since replaced it with competing products.
The team routinely recalls that regulators and the various states that have approved the vaccine have assumed that “the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks of extremely rare side effects.”
Source: AFP and Hindentimes with
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