Possible link between AstraZeneca shot, rare clot, says EU’s drug regulator

The EU’s drug regulator says it has found a possible link between the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and a rare clotting disorder but said that the benefits of the shot still outweigh risks.

In a statement released Wednesday, the European Medicines Agency placed no new restrictions on using the vaccine in people 18 and over.

Earlier this week, a senior official from the European Medicines Agency said there was a causal link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the rare clots that have been seen in dozens of people worldwide, among the tens of millions who have received at least one dose of the shot.

Marco Cavaleri, head of health threats and vaccine strategy at the Amsterdam-based agency, said in comments to Rome’s Il Messaggero newspaper on Tuesday that it is becoming more and more difficult to affirm that there isn’t a cause-and-effect relationship between AstraZeneca vaccines and the very rare cases of blood clots associated with a low level of platelets.

But Cavaleri acknowledged the agency hadn’t yet figured out how exactly the vaccine might be causing these rare side effects. The agency said its evaluation has not yet reached a conclusion and the review is currently ongoing.

Meanwhile, the rollout of Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to under-30s will be halted following recommendations of Britain’s medicine regulator on Wednesday, the Sun newspaper and Sky News reported, adding they would be given Pfizer or Moderna instead.

Britain’s medicine regulator has identified a possible side-effect from COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca involving rare brain blood clotting, chief executive June Raine said on Wednesday.

She added that its benefits outweighed the risks for the vast majority.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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