AstraZeneca announced that it will voluntarily pull Vaxzevria from the global market amid a sharp decline in demand and following the company’s recent admission that its vaccine is linked with a rare side effect.
AstraZeneca is voluntarily withdrawing its COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria as global demand for coronavirus products continue to decline and it faces growing competition from newer vaccines, according to several media reports.
The British pharma said that the decision to pull Vaxzevria from the global market was due to the “surplus of available updated vaccines” adapted to newer and emerging variants of COVID-19, Reuters reported Tuesday. “This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied,” the company said.
The withdrawal of Vaxzevria also comes more than a week after AstraZeneca admitted in court documents that the vaccine can trigger thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), a rare side effect characterized by the presence of blood clots alongside a low platelet count, according to The Telegraph.
AstraZeneca initially contested the claim that Vaxzevria caused the side effect but eventually admitted in a legal document that the vaccine “can, in very rare cases, cause TTS.” The company is facing more than 50 cases in the U.K. and could be on the hook for up to approximately $125 million in damages.
However, AstraZeneca maintains that it is pulling Vaxzevria for purely commercial reasons and the timing regarding the TTS admission is purely coincidental.
“We are incredibly proud of the role Vaxzevria played in ending the global pandemic. According to independent estimates, over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone and over three billion doses were supplied globally,” AstraZeneca told The Telegraph in a statement. “Our efforts have been recognized by governments around the world and are widely regarded as being a critical component of ending the global pandemic.”
Vaxzevria’s withdrawal comes as the biopharma industry continues to be hit by a COVID-19 cliff, driven by a steep decline in demand and sales of coronavirus-related products.
Pfizer and BioNTech, beneficiaries of the pandemic boom, continue to suffer from slumping revenues. On Monday, the German biotech reported that its revenue plunged to $202 million during the first quarter of 2024, down from nearly $1.4 billion during the same time period the prior year.
BioNTech attributed the decline directly to “lower commercial revenues” from its COVID-19 vaccine due to “endemic-level demand.”
Pfizer also sustained a 20% year-over-year drop in revenue, which the pharma blamed on the slowdown in COVID-19 demand. Excluding its coronavirus business, Pfizer would have seen an 11% jump in revenues.
Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Reach out to him on LinkedIn or email him at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.
