The withdrawal of the Vaxzevria vaccine against Covid-19 has been announced by AstraZeneca months after it admitted in court documents that the formulation could cause rare thromboses.

According to the company’s announcement, the vaccine can no longer be used in the European Union. The request for withdrawal was filed on March 5 and took effect yesterday, Tuesday.

According to AstraZeneca, the vaccine is being withdrawn for commercial reasons as “it has been overtaken by updated vaccines that address the new Covid-19 variants”. This, according to the statement, has led to a reduction in demand for AstraZeneca’s vaccine which is no longer being produced or marketed.

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“According to independent reports, in the first year of use of this vaccine alone, 6.5 million lives were saved and a total of 3 billion doses were delivered worldwide. Our efforts have been recognised by governments around the world and were seen by Euros as critical to ending the global pandemic.

We will now work with our legislators and partners to bring a clean closure to this chapter and its significant contribution to the Covid-19 pandemic,” the company’s statement said.