Sweden Has No Plans to Suspend Use of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 Vaccine
11 März 2021 - 2:21PM
Dow Jones News
By Dominic Chopping
STOCKHOLM--Sweden's Medical Products Agency said Thursday it has
no plans to suspend use of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, despite
reports of blood clots after vaccination.
The agency--responsible for regulation and surveillance of drugs
and medicinal products in Sweden--said in a statement that it
doesn't consider there to be sufficient support to discontinue use
of the vaccine.
"The European Medicines Agency has also found no reason to
withdraw or suspend vaccination," it said.
"The assessment is that the benefit of the vaccine clearly
outweighs the risks, the authorities continue to monitor the
issue," it said.
Earlier this week, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and
Austria stopped vaccination with a batch of AstraZeneca's vaccine
due to reports of blood clots following vaccination. Preliminary
investigations have not shown any quality defects with the current
batch, but the investigation is continuing, it said.
The batch consists of 1 million doses that have been delivered
to 17 European Union countries, of which Sweden is one.
Earlier Thursday, Denmark said it would stop all vaccination
with AstraZeneca's vaccine.
The agency said there is currently no established link between
vaccination and the occurrence of blood clots.
"Patient safety is the highest priority for AstraZeneca.
Regulators have clear and stringent efficacy and safety standards
for the approval of any new medicine, and that includes Covid-19
Vaccine AstraZeneca," an AstraZeneca spokesman said Thursday.
The spokesman said the safety of the vaccine has been studied
extensively in Phase 3 trials, and that peer-reviewed data
confirmed that it had been generally well tolerated.
As of March 9, 22 cases of blood clots had been reported among
the 3 million people vaccinated with AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine
in Europe.
The Medical Products Agency has received two cases of suspected
thromboembolic events for people vaccinated with AstraZeneca's
vaccine, about 10 for the Comirnaty vaccine and no cases for
Moderna's vaccine.
A total of 1 million Swedes have been vaccinated.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 11, 2021 08:06 ET (13:06 GMT)
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