Denmark suspends use of AstraZeneca Covid vaccine

LONDON – Denmark on Thursday announced it would temporarily suspend use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

The Danish Health Authority has said it will temporarily stop using the vaccine in its precautionary vaccination program “after reports of serious cases of blood clots in people who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine “.

“In this context, the European Medicines Agency has launched an investigation into the AstraZeneca vaccine. A report shows a death in Denmark. At present, it cannot be concluded whether there is a link between the vaccine and blood clots, ”authority said in a statement.

He did not specify the number of reports of blood clots or their origin.

The announcement follows a similar move in Austria earlier this week, where authorities are investigating the death of one person and the illness of another after receiving doses of the vaccine.

AstraZeneca shares in the London market fell 2.4% on Thursday morning. Oxford University made no comment on the announcement when contacted by CNBC.

A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said the company is aware of the Danish health authority’s statement that it is currently investigating potential side effects related to the vaccine.

“Patient safety is the top priority for AstraZeneca. Regulators have clear and strict efficacy and safety standards for the approval of any new drug, including the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine. The safety of the vaccine has been extensively studied in Phase III clinical trials and peer-reviewed data confirms that the vaccine is generally well tolerated, ”AstraZeneca said in a statement to CNBC.

Søren Brostrøm, Director of the National Board of Health in Denmark, insIt was understood that the 14-day suspension was a precaution during the investigation.

“It is important to stress that we did not choose not to use the AstraZeneca vaccine, but put it on hold. There is good evidence that the vaccine is both safe and effective. But we and the Danish Medicines Agency must react to reports of possible serious side effects, both from Denmark and other European countries, ”he said.

Austrian health authorities suspended the use of AstraZeneca vaccine batch ABV5300 after one person was diagnosed with multiple thrombosis (formation of blood clots in blood vessels) and died 10 days after vaccination, and another has been hospitalized with pulmonary embolism after being vaccinated.

“The latter is now recovering,” the European Medicines Agency said on Wednesday.

However, the EMA added that “there is currently no indication that the vaccination caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects with this vaccine.”

The EMA noted that the same batch ABV5300 has been delivered to 17 countries in the EU and includes 1 million doses of the vaccine.

“Some EU countries have also subsequently suspended this batch as a precautionary measure, while a full investigation is underway. Although a quality defect is considered unlikely at this stage, the quality of the batch is under investigation, ”the EMA said.

He added that his safety committee was reviewing the matter and “investigating cases reported with the batch as well as all other cases of thromboembolic events and other blood clot-related conditions reported after vaccination.”

“The information available to date indicates that the number of thromboembolic events in vaccinated persons is not greater than that observed in the general population.”

As of March 9, “22 cases of thromboembolic events had been reported among the 3 million people vaccinated with the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Economic Area,” the EMA said.

Advanced clinical trials have shown that the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has an average efficacy of 70% in protecting against the virus. A more recent study by researchers at Oxford found that the Covid vaccine was 76% effective in preventing symptomatic infection for three months after a single dose, and that the rate of effectiveness actually increased with a longer interval. long between the first and second dose.

The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is widely used in vaccination deployments in the UK and the European Union.

The UK has so far vaccinated more than 22 million people with a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and currently only uses the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.