Latest limit use of AstraZeneca vaccine in Netherlands and Philippines

AstraZeneca – developed with Oxford University and considered a frontrunner in the global vaccine race – has been plagued by safety concerns and supply problems since Phase III trial results were published in December, with Indonesia the latest country forced to seek doses from other drugmakers.

The Philippines suspended the use of AstraZeneca shots for people under age 60 after Europe’s regulator said on Wednesday it found rare cases of blood clots among some adult recipients, although it still believes that the vaccine’s benefits outweighed its risks.

The Dutch government will limit use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to people above age 60 following rare cases of blood clots, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said on 8th April Thursday.

The decision came a day after Europe’s medicines regulator said it found rare cases of blood clots among some adult recipients of the shot, although the vaccine’s advantages still outweighed its risks.

Australia recommended people under 50 should get Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in preference to AstraZeneca’s, a policy shift it warned would hold up its inoculation campaign.

AstraZeneca’s shot is sold at cost, for a few dollars a dose. It is by far the cheapest and most high-volume launched so far, and has none of the extreme refrigeration requirements of some other COVID-19 vaccines, making it likely to be the mainstay of many inoculation programmes in the developing world.

But more than a dozen countries have at one time suspended or partially suspended use of the shot, first on concerns about efficacy in older people, and now on worries about rare dangerous side effects in younger people.