(CMR) After distributing more than three billion doses worldwide, AstraZeneca announced that its COVID-19 vaccine will be withdrawn from the market as demand for it has declined.
This removal from the market comes months after AstraZeneca reportedly admitted that its vaccine could cause very rare side effects, such as blood clots and low platelet counts.
AstraZeneca said while it was “incredibly proud” of the vaccine, it made the decision because the rise of new coronavirus variants meant demand had shifted to the newer, updated vaccines.
In a statement, AstraZeneca said: “According to independent estimates, over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone. Our efforts have been recognized by governments around the world and are widely regarded as being a critical component of ending the global pandemic.”
According to CNN, Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton in England, said the likely key reason for the withdrawal was the fact that other Covid vaccines, including the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, were “essentially better products.”
The newer mRNA vaccines use genetic material to instruct cells to make the coronavirus spike protein, which in turn causes the body to create antibodies to combat an actual COVID-19 infection. AstraZeneca’s COVID shot uses a cold virus common to chimpanzees as a viral vector to carry the spike protein from the coronavirus into cells.
“AstraZeneca is very good, but the mRNA products… are better. They have higher effectiveness and the mRNA platforms are more easily adapted towards the latest Covid variants. Thus, they form a key part of most countries’ longer-term strategies,” Head told CNN.
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