AstraZeneca Withdraws COVID Vaccine from the Global Market

AstraZeneca Withdraws COVID Vaccine from the Global Market

The last time we checked on reports about AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, the pharmaceutical firm had admitted that its product could cause a deadly side effect from blood clotting. The stunning admission came during a court proceeding related to a class action lawsuit.

AstraZeneca has started withdrawing the vaccine from global markets because of low demand. The firm denies that the move is related to concerns about the shot’s side effects.

Since the vaccine was approved in Britain in December 2020, over three billion doses have been supplied globally. But in the past few years, demand has plummeted as other manufacturers have released shots tailored to newer variants and countries have opted to use those. AstraZeneca’s shot, which was developed with Oxford University, is no longer being manufactured or supplied.

The company said it had decided to voluntarily withdraw all licenses to market its Covid vaccine. That process began months ago, and very few active licenses remain, the company said. The Telegraph in Britain earlier reported the decision on Tuesday.

…Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist at the University of Manchester, said the company’s decision to pull the shot was “not a surprise.” Unlike other manufacturers, AstraZeneca did not update its shot to target emerging virus variants because it used a vaccine technology, known as a viral vector, that was less amenable to such changes.

Earlier this year, AstraZeneca requested that the vaccine be withdrawn from most European countries. The European Commission has now approved the request.

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine was first given the nod by the EMA in January 2021. Within weeks, however, concerns grew about the vaccine’s safety, when dozens of countries suspended the vaccine’s use after unusual but rare blood clots were detected in a small number of immunized people. The EU regulator concluded AstraZeneca’s shot didn’t raise the overall risk of clots, but doubts remained.

Partial results from its first major trial — which Britain used to authorize the vaccine — were clouded by a manufacturing mistake that researchers didn’t immediately acknowledge. Insufficient data about how well the vaccine protected older people led some countries to initially restrict its use to younger populations before reversing course.

For those curious, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines work in different ways. The Pfizer vaccine uses mRNA technology, while the AstraZeneca vaccine uses an adenovirus vector. Moderna uses the same mRNA technology as Pfizer. All the vaccines essentially instruct the cells that take up the vaccine to produce the spike protein found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus causing COVID-19).

Once the spike protein is emitted from the cell, the immune system reacts to eliminate the foreign substance. Theoretically, the immune system will then react and destroy the COVID-19 virus whenever there is an exposure.

Interestingly, after the forced lockdowns that were part of the inept pandemic response, obesity rates have shot up.

AstraZeneca now wants a piece of the obesity-curing drug market. The firm eventually aims to produce an Ozempic-like drug in pill form.

AstraZeneca Plc Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot envisions his company bringing more affordable drugs to people who need to lose a modest amount of weight for health reasons but don’t necessarily have obesity.

One day after the UK drugmaker announced a deal to develop an obesity pill with a Chinese biotech, Eccogene, Soriot said the company is aiming for a once-daily pill that’s less costly to produce than injectable obesity medicines, such as Wegovy from Novo Nordisk A/S and newly approved Zepbound from Eli Lilly & Co. That would allow AstraZeneca to sell it at a far lower price than those drugs, which go for more than $1,000 a month in the US.

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