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LONDON – AstraZeneca turns the page: the Anglo-Swedish biopharmaceutical multinational wants to leave behind both the success and the controversies linked to its vaccine against Covid-19. The group today began the voluntary recall of the Vaxrevia vaccine worldwide, starting with the European Union.
The European Medicines Agency, at the request of AstraZeneca, formally announced that the vaccine is no longer authorized. However, the group stopped producing it.
The official explanation is that demand has been waning recently, as many new vaccines targeting new variants of the virus have hit the market. Covid-19 . In Britain, for example, the vaccine is not used because authorities determined that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were more effective.
No longer profitable from April 2023
Crucially, AstraZeneca said Vaxrevia will no longer generate profits for the group from April 2023. Sales of the vaccine were $12 million last year. In 2021, sales were $4 billion. The combination of zero profits and ongoing controversies has therefore become unsustainable for the pharmaceutical company, which has therefore decided to close this crucial chapter in its long history.
Taking a step back, we must remember the impact that the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in record time in collaboration with the University of Oxford, the first in the world to be approved, had at the time of the pandemic. Its administration since January 2021, according to AZ, has saved over 6.5 million lives in the first year of use.