- Vaxzevria, an extremely effective coronavirus vaccine, is being discontinued by AstraZeneca.
- Vaxzevria is no longer permitted to be sold in nations, as per the announcement made by the European Medicines Agency.
- AstraZeneca managed to sell about $4 billion worth of Vaxzevria globally in 2021.
Vaxzevria, an extremely effective coronavirus vaccine, is being discontinued by AstraZeneca because there are now many alternative doses available and the market for them is decreasing.
Since the first dosage was given in the UK on January 4, 2021, more than 3 billion doses of the vaccine—which was created in collaboration with the University of Oxford—have been distributed globally as one of the primary COVID-19 vaccinations. However, since April 2023, AstraZeneca has not made money on the vaccine.
AstraZeneca
Vaxzevria is no longer permitted to be marketed or sold in nations that are members of the European Union, as per the announcement made by the European Medicines Agency.
Removing the vaccine’s marketing authorization in areas where no further commercial demand is anticipated is one way AstraZeneca said it will cooperate with regulators in other nations to provide a clear course of action.
Dr. Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton in England, stated that rival Covid vaccines, such as mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, were “essentially better products,” and that this was most likely the main factor behind the withdrawal. While AstraZeneca is excellent, he claimed that mRNA products are superior due to their increased efficacy and ease of adaptation to the most recent Covid versions.
AstraZeneca had little prior experience creating vaccines before it entered the COVID-19 controversy, and it was criticized by politicians and health regulators in both Europe and the US for several errors, including omissions of important information from public comments and errors made during clinical studies.
The EU and the UK’s medical regulators revised the vaccine’s labeling in April 2021 to highlight the possibility of a serious, but uncommon, side effect: blood clotting disorder.
Despite these problems, AstraZeneca managed to sell about $4 billion worth of Vaxzevria globally in 2021. Due to injuries purportedly brought on by Vaxzevria, the corporation is facing a class action lawsuit in the UK filed by the legal firm Leigh Day on behalf of 51 plaintiffs.