By
After more than 300 million doses have been administered worldwide, Oxford-Astragene's Covid vaccine is being withdrawn.
AstraZeneca said it was “greatly proud” of the vaccine, but that the decision was made for commercial reasons.
They say the rise of new variants of the coronavirus means that demand has now shifted to more advanced vaccines.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is believed to have saved millions of lives during the pandemic, but it also caused rare, and in some cases fatal, blood clots.
Scientists at the University of Oxford developed a Covid vaccine in record time in the fight to bring the world out of pandemic lockdown. They brought down a process that could have taken 10 years to 10 months.
In November 2020, it was announced as the “vaccine for the world” because it was cheaper than other Covid vaccines and easier to store.
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca agreed to mass produce the vaccine.
Initially, AstraZeneca's vaccination program was at the heart of the UK's plan to exit lockdown.
“The truth is it made a huge difference. Together with Pfizer's vaccine, it got us out of the disaster at the time,” said Professor Adam Finn of Bristol University.
However, rare side effects of the vaccine, such as abnormal blood clotting, have tarnished its reputation. The UK also then looked at other options.
“Our efforts have been recognized by various governments around the world and are widely regarded as an important contribution to stopping the global pandemic.”
AstraZeneca says newly developed vaccines that work better against mutated forms of Covid are now widespread. This means there is a “surplus of these modern vaccines”, resulting in a “reduced demand” for their vaccines and they are no longer “producing or supplying” vaccines.
Professor Finn added: “I think withdrawing the vaccine means it's no longer working.
“It has been shown that the virus is very active and has evolved along with the early vaccines, so they are no longer working. Only the newly formulated vaccines are working now”.
Bangladesh /IJ
