AstraZeneca withdraws its COVID-19 vaccine worldwide

AstraZeneca says it is with‐ drawing Vaxzevria, its vac‐ cine to protect against COVID-19, from global mar‐ kets. The vaccine was used early on in the pandemic in many countries, including Canada.

In an update on the Euro‐ pean Medicines Agency's website on Wednesday, the regulator said that the ap‐ proval for Vaxzevria had been withdrawn "at the re‐ quest of the marketing au‐ thorization holder."

More than three billion doses of the vaccine have been supplied since it first was administered in the United Kingdom in January 2021.

AstraZeneca said as multi‐ ple vaccines against newer variants of the pandemic coronavirus have been devel‐ oped, there is a surplus. De‐ mand for Vaxzevria declined and the company said it is no longer being manufactured or supplied.

WATCH | AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine pulled:

Dr. Samir Gupta, a respirologist at St Michael's Hospital in Toronto, said what's important is that the creation of the AstraZeneca vaccine, testing, roll out, dis‐ covery of complications and stopping of vaccine distribu‐ tion played out as it should for a new pandemic virus.

According to media re‐ ports, AstraZeneca previously admitted in court documents that the vaccine can cause rare side-effects such as blood clots and low blood platelet counts.

"Ultimately we can't forget that the virus is worse than the vaccine, even with this complication," Gupta said in an interview on CBC News Network.

AstraZeneca's application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 and came into effect on May 7, ac‐ cording to the Telegraph, which first reported the de‐ velopment.

The Serum Institute of In‐ dia (SII), which produced As‐ traZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine under the brand name Cov‐ ishield, stopped manufactur‐ ing and supply of the doses since December 2021, an SII spokesperson said.