No evidence AstraZeneca vaccine causes increased risk of blood clot, says company

AstraZeneca said on Sunday that a safety review found no evidence that its COVID-19 vaccine caused an increased risk of blood clots after several countries stopped using the vaccines earlier this week.

The company said it carried out a “careful review” of safety data after Denmark stopped launching the AstraZeneca jab on Thursday, after a 60-year-old woman who received the injection developed a blood clot and died. Officials in Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands and Ireland quickly followed suit while investigations were underway, saying the measures were preventive and there was no evidence of any link.

The drug maker, however, tried to allay those fears on Sunday, after analyzing data from 17 million people who have already received their vaccine.

“A careful review of all available safety data from more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and the United Kingdom with the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, at any defined age group, gender, lot or in any country, ”said the company in a statement.

The AstraZeneca injection has not yet been approved for use in the United States, but the company plans to apply for an emergency use permit in the coming weeks, Reuters reported.

AstraZeneca’s medical director, Ann Taylor, added that the number of blood clots reported among the 17 million people who received the vaccine was “less than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population”. There were 15 events of deep vein thrombosis and 22 cases of pulmonary embolism in this group, “much less than would be expected to occur naturally,” added the company.

“The nature of the pandemic has increased attention in individual cases and we are moving beyond standard practices for monitoring the safety of licensed drugs when reporting vaccine events to ensure public safety,” Taylor said in a statement.

Those comments were echoed by the European Medicines Agency earlier this week, which said that there was currently “no indication” of a link between the vaccine and blood clots, and that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed any risks.

“The EMA safety committee’s position … is that the benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh its risks and the vaccine can continue to be administered while investigating cases of thromboembolic events is ongoing,” the agency said.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has faced a number of public relations setbacks during the testing and implementation phases. Clinical trials have shown that it has a lower efficacy rate than other major vaccines, notably the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, but is profoundly effective in preventing serious illness and death in people who contract COVID-19.

Still, in some countries, hundreds of thousands of doses have remained closed in recent weeks.