Covid-19: pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca withdraws its vaccine from sale in the face of “decline in demand”

AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine was one of the first to come to market during the pandemic. MAXPPP ILLUSTRATION

The British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced this Wednesday, May 8, that it was withdrawing from sale its vaccine against Covid-19 Vaxzevria, one of the first put on the market during the pandemic, citing a drop in demand.

In a press release published this Wednesday, May 8, the Astrazeneca laboratory reported a "surplus of updated vaccines& quot; faced with the different variants of the virus and a "decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer manufactured or distributed" . A source close to Astrazeneca stressed to AFP that there was "haven't had any sales for a while".

Three billion doses distributed around the world

Consequently, "AstraZeneca has taken the decision to initiate the withdrawal of the marketing authorization for Vaxzevria in Europe&quot ;, indicates the British pharmaceutical group which specifies "working with other regulators in the world to initiate the withdrawal of marketing authorizations for Vaxzevria where there is no no future demand expected for the vaccine". In its press release, Astrazeneca says it wants "to conclude this chapter".

"We are incredibly proud of the role Vaxzevria played in ending the pandemic", adds Astrazeneca& nbsp;in its statement, stating that "according to independent estimates, more than 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use’ quot; serum, "and more than three billion doses have been distributed around the world".

Several setbacks

If Astrazeneca’s profit jumped 21 % year-on-year in the first quarter, driven particularly by oncology sales, the group has been reporting for months’ rsquo;a constant decline in sales of drugs linked to Covid — just like its rival GSK, which had been largely left behind in the race to develop a vaccine.

This vaccine, one of the very first on the market even though serums were not Astrazeneca's specialty, had suffered several setbacks, including a green light from marketing which never arrived in the United States. It also experienced delivery problems in Europe, combined with suspicions of increased risks of thrombosis following several deaths.

The United Kingdom, which had first relied on Vaxzevria at the start of its anti-Covid vaccination campaign, then replaced it with competing serums, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both with messenger RNA, in European countries.

Astrazeneca regularly reminds that regulators and various states which authorized the vaccine estimated that "the benefits of vaccination largely eclipsed the risks of side effects extremely rare".