THE HAGUE – The European Union’s drug watchdog today said a review of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine found that its benefits increase with age and still outweigh the risks for adults despite links to blood clots.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) was presenting its findings after the European Commission asked it to look into concerns that prompted several countries to restrict the jab’s use to older people.
“It showed that the benefits of vaccination increase with increasing age and infection rates,” said the Amsterdam-based EMA in a statement.
“The benefits of Vaxzevria outweigh its risks in adults of all age groups; however, very rare cases of blood clots with low blood platelets have occurred following vaccination,” it said, using the vaccine’s brand name.
The rare clots happened in around one in 100,000 people who received the vaccine, it said.
“Vaxzevria is effective at preventing hospitalisations, intensive care unit admissions, and deaths due to Covid-19. The most common side effects are usually mild or moderate, and get better within a few days.”
Despite reports that clot cases are more prevalent among women, EMA said “there (was) insufficient data available from across the EU to provide further context on benefits and risks with regard to sex”.
Blow to confidence
Public confidence in the AstraZeneca jab has taken a blow since EMA on April 7 said a very rare, but often fatal, form of blood clot affecting the brain should be listed as a side effect.
Clots are also being listed as a side effect of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine, which uses the same adenovirus vector technology as AstraZeneca, said EMA earlier this week.
Brussels asked the agency earlier this month to carry out further investigations, and EMA said its announcement today is to “provide an update on the analysis of data” on the AstraZeneca jab.
EMA said it is also sharing the latest opinion issued by its human medicines committee “aimed at supporting national decision-making on how to best use the vaccine in their territories”.
The regulator on Tuesday said there had been 287 cases of the rare clots worldwide linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine, 25 to Pfizer-BioNTech, eight to J&J and five to Moderna.
The EU is now increasingly relying on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which uses the rival mRNA technology, for its roll-out.
The European Commission is also looking to launch legal action against AstraZeneca for under-delivering vaccine doses to the EU, which hobbled its early roll-out. – AFP, April 23, 2021
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