A laboratory technician handles scales of the Covid-19 vaccine from Oxford University.
VINCENZO PINTO | AFP | Getty Images
The British-Swedish drug manufacturer AstraZeneca is fighting in various fields this week – and defends the coronavirus vaccine against reports that it may be less effective in protecting the elderly and facing increasing tensions with the EU over the delayed supply on the block.
On Monday, the drugmaker defended its vaccine from reports in several German newspapers, Bild and Handelsblatt, that the AstraZeneca vaccine, created in collaboration with the University of Oxford, has a low efficacy rate (of less than 10% and 8%) . said respectively at the age of 65, the most important target group to have the vaccine because they are at risk of experiencing serious illnesses and deaths.
Both quoted unnamed German government officials as saying the vaccine had a poor efficacy rate among people over 65, saying it could affect whether the vaccine was allowed to be used among the elderly.
AstraZeneca responded on Monday night in a statement to CNBC: “The reports that the effectiveness of AstraZeneca / Oxford is up to 8% in adults over the age of 65 are completely wrong.”
“In November, we published data in The Lancet showing that older adults showed strong immune responses to the vaccine, while 100% of older adults generated a specific antibody after the second dose,” he said.
The UK’s joint vaccination and immunization committee, which advises the government on its vaccination strategy, is said to have supported the use of the vaccine in the elderly.
Participants in elderly trials were later admitted to phase three clinical trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which took place in the United Kingdom and Brazil and earlier in South Africa, so there is less available data on the efficacy of the shot in old age. of 65.. Initial trials in the UK focused on under-55s to investigate whether the vaccine was effective for most health professionals.
When AstraZeneca published its findings in the medical journal The Lancet in December, it was stated: ‘Since older age groups were recruited later than younger age groups, there was less time for the accumulation of consequences, and consequently there was efficacy data in these groups. is currently limited by the small number of cases, but additional data will be available in future analyzes. CNBC contacted AstraZeneca for comment following the reports.
The German Ministry of Health said on Tuesday morning that there were no data indicating that the effectiveness of AstraZeneca’s vaccine was only 8% among older people, reports Reuters.
Supply Issues
Tensions have been rising since last week when the drugmaker announced that production issues would mean delivering far fewer doses to the EU than previously promised. The vast majority of the AstraZeneca vaccine for distribution to the EU is manufactured in the United Kingdom
According to a senior anonymous official who spoke to Reuters last Friday, the EU had to receive 80 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by March, but the drugmaker told the EU that the supply of doses would be reduced to about 31 million doses, a reduction of about 60%.
“This new schedule is not acceptable to the European Union,” EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a statement on Monday, stating that the EU could tighten rules on the export of Covid-19 vaccines.
“The European Union will take the necessary steps to protect its citizens and rights,” she said, adding that “in the future, all companies manufacturing against Covid-19 in the EU will have to give advance notice whenever they want. export to third countries. ‘
Any restrictions on the export of vaccines from the EU could affect the supply of the Pfizer / BioNTech shot, which is manufactured in Belgium, to the United Kingdom.
Commissioner Kyriakides said on Monday that talks with AstraZeneca representatives “led to dissatisfaction with the lack of clarity and inadequate explanations.”
She added that “EU countries are united: vaccine developers have social and contractual responsibilities that they must uphold.” The EU has asked AstraZeneca to provide a detailed plan on vaccine delivery and when distribution will take place, with further discussions set for Wednesday.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been approved for use by the European Medicines Agency, but Kyriakdes said it could come by the end of the week.
The concern about AstraZeneca supplies comes on top of one from Pfizer and BioNTech who also warned in mid-January to temporarily reduce production while improving their production capacity.
The shortage of supplies is a bitter blow to the EU, whose vaccination has already started (on 27 December) later than in the United Kingdom and the USA.
The EU bought vaccines as a bloc (although some countries also pursued their own unilateral transactions) with the distribution of shots based on population size, but the vaccination of individual countries, including in Germany, has so far been very slow.