WASHINGTON – A US health agency raised concerns yesterday that AstraZeneca may have included out-of-date information during trials of its Covid-19 vaccine, a day after the company said its drug was highly effective in preventing the disease.
The Anglo-Swedish pharma giant stood by its assessment of the results of its US trials, saying it would publish new data “within 48 hours” in response to concerns raised by the US National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases.
In more bad publicity for AstraZeneca, French authorities said they are investigating the death of a 26-year-old medical student days after he received their Covid-19 vaccine, while stressing that no link had been established yet with the jab.
The fresh problems for the drugmaker, which had on Monday hailed its vaccine as 79% effective at preventing Covid-19, come as Europe continues to wrangle over shortages of the jab and after weeks of safety concerns.
With AstraZeneca delivering only 30% of the doses it promised the EU for the first quarter, Germany threw its weight behind a ban on European exports of the jab, while also announcing strict virus measures over Easter to contain spiralling infections.
The European Commission will today adopt “a revision of the export transparency and authorisation mechanism,” a spokesman in Brussels told journalists.
Meanwhile, Britain marked the anniversary of its first coronavirus lockdown by holding a minute’s silence for the more than 126,000 of its citizens who have died from Covid-19, the fifth-highest death toll in the world.
The global death toll now stands at more than 2.7 million. – AFP, March 24, 2021
