The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine may be authorised only for younger people in Europe, because there is insufficient data on how well it works in the over-65s, the head of the regulatory body has suggested.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to authorise the AstraZeneca vaccine at the end of this week, a month after it was approved in the UK.
Emer Cooke, the EMA’s executive director, told the European parliament that it is examining the “totality of the data” provided by AstraZeneca across different age groups.
In an interview with la Repubblica on Tuesday, AstraZeneca’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, acknowledged there was “a limited amount of data” on the effects of the vaccine in older people, but insisted the information they had showed “very strong antibody production against the virus in the elderly, similar to what we see in younger people”.
He said he understood if some countries “out of caution, will use our vaccine for the younger group”.
But he added: “Honestly, it is fine. There’s not enough vaccines for everybody. So if they want to use another vaccine for older people and our vaccine for younger people, what’s the problem? It’s not a problem.”
Their comments follow the comprehensive rejection of claims in German newspapers that the efficacy of the vaccine may only be 8% in the over-65 age group.
AstraZeneca said the 8% figure was “completely incorrect” and pointed to the data published in the Lancet medical journal and by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in the UK, which gave the vaccine emergency authorisation in December.
The vaccine is being widely used in the immunisation campaign in the UK for people over the age of 70.
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