Shares in AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) got a boost on Tuesday as the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine developed with Oxford University will be reviewed by experts worldwide.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will hold separate meetings after 11 EU countries halted the rollout of the jab, alongside Thailand, Venezuela and Indonesia.
READ: AstraZeneca defends Coronavirus vaccine after new suspensions in Netherlands, Republic of Ireland
The decision was taken after cases of blood clots in people who had received the vaccine, although several authorities and AstraZeneca have stressed no connection has been made yet.
The UK and the EU medicines regulators invited residents to continue get the jab when asked to do so.
The EMA will issue a decision on the inoculation on Thursday, the BBC reported.
“We need to have the facts first, we cannot come to a conclusion until we’ve done a thorough scientific analysis," said EMA director Emer Cooke in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
“At present, there is no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions. They have not come up in the clinical trials and they are not listed as known or expected side events with this vaccine."
“The number of thromboembolic events overall in the vaccinated people seems not to be higher than that seen in the general population.”
On Sunday, the FTSE 100 pharma giant said that a review of all available safety data of the 17mln people who have received the jab in the EU and UK has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia.
So far across the EU and UK, there have been 15 events of DVT and 22 events of pulmonary embolism reported among those given the vaccine.
But the Anglo-Swedish firm said the number is “much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar across other licensed COVID-19 vaccines”.
“Coming on top of the negative press the vaccine received from the likes of French President Emmanuel Macron, who said it was only quasi effective in the over 65’s, this is yet another blow to the credibility of the Oxford vaccine, and ultimately the last thing AstraZeneca, and more importantly the populations of Europe needs given that, of all the vaccines, the Oxford jab is by far the easiest to transport,” noted Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK.
“The problems are also likely to delay the timeline of an economic re-opening across Europe, as the vaccination program sees vaccine shortages get more acute, with the result that more people are likely to become infected, and possibly die.”
“If one was being cynical one might suggest that some countries in Europe are using AstraZeneca as a scapegoat in order to disguise their own failures in respect of their own vaccine rollout programs.”
Shares in AstraZeneca added 3% to 7,190p on Tuesday morning.
--Adds quotes by Emer Cooke--