A draft recommendation from the German vaccination advisory committee calls for the AstraZeneca vaccine to be offered only to people aged 18 to 64 for the time being, citing what it says is insufficient data to judge its effectiveness for older people.
The European Medicines Agency is expected to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in the 27 countries of the European Union on Friday. It would be the third to be released for use in the EU after the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
In a draft recommendation released on the Thursday before that decision, Germany’s permanent vaccination committee called for the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the 18-64 age group based on information currently available. He said that “there is currently insufficient data to assess the effectiveness of vaccination from age 65 onwards.”
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AstraZeneca noted earlier this week that British regulators supported its use in the older age group, despite the lack of efficacy data at an advanced stage. The company pointed to earlier stage data published in the Lancet magazine in November “showing that older adults showed strong immune responses to the vaccine, with 100% of older adults generating specific antibodies for the peak after the second dose.”
But doubts remain about how well the vaccine protects the elderly. Only 12% of AstraZeneca’s survey participants were over 55 and were enrolled later, so there was not enough time to see if they fell ill at a lower rate than those who did not get the vaccine.
The company said, following the launch of the German project on Thursday, that “the latest analysis of clinical trial data for the AstraZeneca / Oxford COVID-19 vaccine supports efficacy in the age group over 65”. He added that he is awaiting the decision of the EMA.
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German Health Minister Jens Spahn emphasized that the committee’s recommendation is not his final decision and that it will be made only after the vaccine is released for use.
But he said there has been a discussion since the fall about the existence of “little data – not bad data, but little data” in studies on the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine in older groups.
“It was to be expected that this would have an influence on the decision of the regulatory authorities and then of the permanent vaccine commission,” said Spahn. “We still don’t know how to concretely – so let’s wait for the decision tomorrow on the release and then the final recommendation from the permanent vaccine commission.”
When Britain approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use last month, it acknowledged that data on its effectiveness in older people were “limited”.
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The vaccination committee, known by its German acronym STIKO, is a panel of independent experts who provide advice to the government and the medical profession on which immunizations should be given to whom. He does not play a direct role in the vaccine approval process, but his board determines which vaccines are considered standard for which groups and are therefore covered by health insurance.