AstraZeneca announced on Wednesday its decision to withdraw the Covid vaccine Vaxzevria from the market, citing “commercial reasons” due to a decrease in demand for the vaccine.
“The surplus availability of updated Covid-19 vaccines has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied,” stated a spokesperson from AstraZeneca.
The company, in collaboration with Oxford University, swiftly developed the Covid-19 jab during the initial stages of the pandemic in 2020. Initially, Vaxzevria was offered at cost, but AstraZeneca later decided to sell it for profit.
However, with concerns arising over rare blood-clot issues associated with AstraZeneca’s vaccine, public confidence waned, and the world shifted its focus to mRNA vaccines, particularly those developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
As global Covid restrictions were lifted and the pandemic’s severity diminished, sales of Vaxzevria plummeted further.
AstraZeneca has initiated the process of withdrawing Vaxzevria from the market in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMA) region. The company plans to collaborate with other regulators globally to withdraw market authorizations for Vaxzevria where no future commercial demand is expected.
The spokesperson emphasized the significant impact of Vaxzevria, stating that independent estimates suggest it saved over 6.5 million lives in its first year of use alone and that more than three billion doses were supplied globally.
“We are incredibly proud of the role Vaxzevria played in ending the global pandemic,” the spokesperson concluded, noting the widespread recognition of the vaccine’s contribution to combating the pandemic.
