AstraZeneca Withdraws Its COVID Vaccine Globally Citing Commercial Reason

AstraZeneca has started to withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine from all over the world.

This decision of the company came days after it was reported that the British pharmaceutical company admitted that the vaccine can cause rare side effects.

Serum Institute of India manufactured this vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University as Covishield.

But AstraZeneca authorities claimed that the worldwide withdrawal was initiated because of commercial reasons due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” for COVID-19, reported The Telegraph.

The vaccine was superseded by updated vaccines that tackle new variants, AstraZeneca said.

The company added that the vaccine was no longer being produced and could no longer be used.

AstraZeneca is facing a 100 million pound lawsuit in UK over claims that its Covid vaccine caused deaths and injuries to several people. AstraZeneca admitted in one of the court documents in February that Covishield can “in very rare cases, cause TTS or Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome”.

TTS causes blood clots and a low blood platelet count in humans. It has been linked to at least 81 deaths in the UK. However, AstraZeneca refuted that the decision to withdraw Covishield is linked to the court case.