AstraZeneca announces withdrawal of Covid vaccine for "commercial reasons

 British drugmaker AstraZeneca announced Wednesday that it has withdrawn its anti-Covid vaccine, Vaxifria, which was one of the first vaccines produced during the outbreak, for what it called "commercial reasons" and a surplus of updated doses.

An AstraZeneca spokesman said: "As many Covid-19 vaccines have since been developed for variants, there is a surplus of updated vaccines available. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxiveria, which is no longer manufactured and supplies have been stopped".

"We will now work with the organizers and our partners to define a clear path forward to close this chapter and make a significant contribution to the covid pandemic," he added.

AstraZeneca rushed to develop a successful vaccine against Covid during the outbreak of the epidemic, which spread in the first half of 2020.

"Vaxifria", developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, was initially offered in exchange for money, but AstraZeneca decided to sell it in late 2021 to make a profit.

But the world has turned to vaccines that use messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, especially the one produced by the American giant Pfizer in collaboration with the German laboratory "BioNTech", after rare problems with blood clotting associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine caused people to hesitate to receive it.

Sales slumped further as the worldwide restrictions on Covid were fully lifted and the global health crisis passed.

An AstraZeneca spokesman said the group had begun the process of withdrawing the vaccine from markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The company will work with other regulators around the world to initiate the withdrawal of Vaxifria from markets "where future commercial demand for the vaccine is not expected".

The spokesperson stated that, according to independent estimates, "more than 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use" and that more than three billion doses were administered to people around the world.

The source said, "We are very proud of the role Vaxifria played in ending the global epidemic.

He added: "Governments around the world have recognized our efforts, which are widely seen as an essential part of ending the global pandemic.