Denmark is suspending the use of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine

LONDON – Denmark announced on Thursday that it will temporarily suspend use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

The Danish health authority said it would temporarily stop using the shot in its vaccination program as a precaution “following reports of serious cases of blood clots in people vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.”

“Against this background, the European Medicines Agency has launched an investigation into the AstraZeneca vaccine. One report relates to a death in Denmark. At the moment it cannot be concluded whether there is a link between the vaccine and the blood clots,” said the authority said in a statement.

It did not say how many reports of blood clots there had been or where they originated.

The announcement comes after a similar move in Austria at the beginning of the week, where authorities are investigating the death of one person and the illness of another after receiving doses of the vaccine.

AstraZeneca’s shares in the London market fell 2.4% on Thursday morning. Oxford University declined to comment on the announcement when contacted by CNBC.

A spokesman for AstraZeneca said the company was aware of the Danish health authority’s statement that it is currently investigating possible adverse effects of the vaccine.

“Patient safety is the top priority for AstraZeneca. Regulators have clear and strict efficacy and safety standards for the approval of each new drug, including the COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca. The safety of the vaccine has been extensively studied in the clinical phase. Trials III. And Peer-revised data confirm that the vaccine is generally well tolerated, “AstraZeneca said in a statement to CNBC.

Søren Brostrøm, Director of the National Board of Health in Denmark, insruled that the 14-day suspension was a precautionary measure during the investigation.

“It is important to emphasize that we have not abandoned the AstraZeneca vaccine, but that we are putting it on hold. There is good evidence that the vaccine is both safe and effective. But both we and the Danish Medicines Agency need to respond. on reports of possible serious side effects, both from Denmark and other European countries, ”he said.

Austrian health authorities suspended the use of batch ABV5300 of the AstraZeneca vaccine after one person was diagnosed with multiple thrombosis (formation of blood clots in blood vessels) and died 10 days after vaccination, and another was hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism after have been vaccinated.

“The latter is now recovering,” said the European Medicines Agency on Wednesday.

However, the EMA added that “there is currently no evidence that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects of this vaccine.”

The EMA noted that the same batch of ABV5300 was delivered to 17 EU countries and includes 1 million doses of the vaccine.

“Some EU countries have subsequently suspended this batch as a precaution, while a full investigation is underway. Although a quality defect is considered unlikely at this stage, the quality of the batch is under investigation,” the EMA said.

It added that its safety committee was reviewing the matter and “investigated the cases reported with the party, as well as any other cases of thromboembolic events and other conditions related to blood clots reported after vaccination.”

“The information available so far indicates that the rate of thromboembolic events in vaccinated people is no higher than in the general population.”

On March 9, “22 cases of thromboembolic events had been reported among the 3 million people vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca in the European Economic Area,” the EMA said.

Late stage clinical studies showed that the AstraZeneca-Oxford injection has an average efficacy of 70% in protecting against the virus. A more recent study by Oxford researchers found that the Covid vaccine was 76% effective in preventing symptomatic infection for three months after a single dose, and that its effectiveness increased even with a longer interval between the first and second dose.

The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is heavily relied on in the introduction of immunization in the UK and the European Union.

The UK has so far vaccinated more than 22 million people with a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and currently only uses the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech injection.