Covid: why AstraZeneca decided to ‘retire’ its vaccine

After more than 3 billion doses distributed, the AstraZeneca and Oxford University vaccine against Covid-19 is being withdrawn from the market.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said it was “incredibly proud” of the vaccine but had made a commercial decision.

According to the company, the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus has caused demand to shift towards the most recent and updated vaccines.

Its vaccine is estimated to have saved millions of lives during the pandemic, but it has also caused rare and sometimes fatal blood clots.

In November 2020, it was announced as “a vaccine for the world” as it was much cheaper and easier to store than other Covid-19 vaccines. AstraZeneca had agreed to mass manufacture it.

Initially, it served as the basis for the United Kingdom’s plans to vaccinate the population and exit lockdown.

“The truth is that it made a huge difference, it was what got us out of the catastrophe that was unfolding at that time, combined with the other vaccine, from Pfizer”, says Adam Finn, professor at the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom.

But its reputation suffered as unusual blood clots were reported as a rare side effect of the vaccine, and the UK turned to alternatives.

In a statement, AstraZeneca said: “According to independent estimates, more than 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone.”

“Our efforts were recognized by governments around the world, and were widely considered to have been a key component in ending the global pandemic.”

The pharmaceutical company stated that the development of new vaccines against Covid variants, which are now in circulation, has generated a “surplus of available updated vaccines”, leading to a “decline in demand” for its vaccine, which “will no longer be manufactured or distributed”.

“I think the withdrawal of the vaccine (from the market) simply reflects that it is no longer useful,” says Finn.

“It turns out that this virus is very agile. It has evolved to move away from the original vaccines — so in some ways they have become irrelevant, and only reformulated vaccines are likely to be used now.”