European Union regulators authorised AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
The European Medicines Agency licensed the vaccine to be used in people 18 and over, though concerns had been raised this week that not enough data exist to prove it works in older people, reports AP.
The shot is the third COVID-19 vaccine given the greenlight by the European Medicines Agency, after ones made by Pfizer and Moderna. Both were authorised for all adults. The decision requires final approval from the European Commission, a process that occurred swiftly with the other vaccines.
“There are not yet enough results in older participants (over 55 years old) to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in this group,” the regulator said, but added that “protection is expected, given that an immune response is seen in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines.
“EMA’s scientific experts considered that the vaccine can be used in older adults,” the agency said.
Many countries on the continent have been struggling to vaccinate people as quickly as Britain, Israel, the US and elsewhere, and it was long hoped that the AstraZeneca shot would help speed things up. On top of the recent news that the drugmaker would supply fewer doses in an initial batch, there were concerns that an age restriction would further hamper Europe’s vaccination program. Some doctors also feared restricting the vaccine’s use in older people might worsen the pandemic’s impact, since older people have suffered more severe disease and died at a higher rate from the coronavirus.
But in its decision Friday, the European agency said the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, would be recommended for use all adults.
While the AstraZeneca vaccine has been authorised for all adults in other countries, only 12 per cent of the participants in its research were over 55 and they were enrolled later, so there hasn’t been enough time to get results.
