Amid the safety concerns over AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine Covishield and Vaxzevria, the pharmaceutical giant on Tuesday said it has initiated to withdraw its Vaxzevria vaccine globally, The Telegraph reported.
The vaccine maker has said the worldwide withdrawal was initiated because of commercial reasons due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” for COVID-19.
The vaccine was superseded by updated vaccines that tackle new variants, AstraZeneca said.
The latest move came after the United Kingdom-headquartered pharmaceutical giant admitted in the court that in ‘very rare cases’ its Covid vaccine can cause cause TTS or Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome”.
The AZ Vaxzevria vaccine, also manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), was known in India as Covishield.
The consequences of TTS are potentially life-threatening including strokes, brain damage, heart attacks, pulmonary embolism and amputation.