LONDON, United Kingdom — Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca on Wednesday said it was withdrawing Covid vaccine Vaxzevria, one of the first produced in the deadly pandemic, citing “commercial reasons” following a slump in demand.
“As multiple, variant Covid-19 vaccines have since been dev eloped there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied,” an AstraZeneca spokesperson added in a statement.
“We will now work wi th regulators and our partners to align on a clear path forward to conclude this chapter and significant contribution to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
AstraZeneca rapidly developed the successful Covid-19 jab during the coronavirus pandemic which erupted in the first half of 2020.
Vaxzevria, developed alongside Oxford University, was at first offered at cost but Astra decided in late 2021 to sell it for profit.
But the world pivoted towards mRNA vaccines, particularly the one produced by US drugs giant Pfizer and German peer BioNTech, after rare blood-clot problems with Astra’s jab increased public hesitancy about taking it.
Sales collapsed further as global Covid restrictions were fully lifted worldwide and the world emerged from the global health crisis.
The AstraZeneca spokesperson said the group had begun the process from taking it off the market in the Europe, Middle East a nd Africa (EMA) region.
The company will work with other regulators globally to start market authorisation withdrawals for the Vaxzevria “where no future commercial demand for the vaccine is expected”.
The spokesperson said that, according to independent estimates, “over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone” and more than three billion doses were supplied globally.
“We are incredibly proud of the role Vaxzevria played in ending the global pandemic,” the spokesperson said.
“Our efforts have been recognised by governments around the world and are widely regarded as being a critical component of ending the global pandemic. “
MANILA, Philippines – Blacklist Rivalry is officially out of the PGL Wallachia Season 1 tournament after its members failed to secure travel documents in time. The tournament will happen offline in Bucharest, Romania.
The Filipino-laden squad had booked its slot for the tournament after a Cinderella run in the Southeast Asia qualifiers last March, climbing from the lower brackets and going on a five-game winning streak.
PGL also announced that no other Southeast Asian team could replace Blacklist Rivalry as no other teams held any visas as well, and that Chinese team Azure Ray will be joining in the event to fill in the missing team.
Black Rivalry team manager Nathaniel “NaTaN” Wicks took to social media to provide fans with a detailed explanation as to why the team will miss the tournament.
The team had secured their Romanian Schengen Visas but had not received them within the final deadline set by the tournament organizers due to a busy tournament schedule last March, as well as a Romanian Holiday that saw visa processing halted for a week.
“Our Philippine Players’ Romanian Schengen Visas = Approved, but we did not receive them before PGL’s set final deadline. PGL and Blacklist have worked hand in hand for more than a month to help bring us to Romania. Unfortunately, there are things that are out of our control and even though we did our best, it was still not enough,” wrote Wicks.
Despite the setback, the team is now focused on its next outing, which will be the qualifiers for the 2024 Riyadh Masters.