After more than three billion doses administered, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine against the virus that causes covid-19 is going to be withdrawn from the market, the company that produces it announced this Wednesday.
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said in a statement that it “was very proud” of the vaccine, but that it had made a commercial decision.
He further noted that the rise of new coronavirus variants means a shift in demand for updated vaccines.
Although It is estimated that this vaccine saved millions of lives during the covid pandemic, A few cases of death due to thrombosis due to the vaccine were also reported.
In the race to lift the restrictions ordered during the covid-19 pandemic, this vaccine was developed by scientists at the University of Oxford in record time.
A process that can take 10 years was achieved in just 10 months.
In November 2020 it was called “a vaccine for the world,” and it was by far the cheapest and easiest to store than the other vaccines developed at the time.
AstraZeneca, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, decided that it was going to mass produce it.
“The truth is that it made a huge difference. “It was the vaccine that freed us from a catastrophe, combined with other vaccines like Pfizer,” said Professor Adam Finn, from the University of Bristol.
However, its reputation was tarnished by a series of unusual side effects such as the appearance of blood clots, which caused several countries to look for other alternatives to deal with Covid-19.
According to the AstraZeneca statement, “According to independent estimates, nearly 6.5 million lives were saved in the span of one year.”
“Our efforts have been recognized by governments around the world and as a key component in ending the pandemic,” they add.
They also noted that the development of new vaccines that more closely resemble the mutated forms of Covid now circulating meant there was a “surplus of updated vaccines available,” leading to a “decline in demand” for their vaccine, which “No longer manufactured”.
Finn adds that he believes “that the withdrawal of the vaccine simply reflects that it is no longer useful.”
“It turns out that this virus is very agile and has evolved from the original vaccines, so in a sense they have become irrelevant and it is likely that only reformulated vaccines will now be used“he concludes.
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