The European Union’s Medicines Regulators on Thursday pass vote of confidence on Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
There have been lots of controversy on use of AstraZeneca vaccine with many European countries suspending its use follow some cases of blood clotting in people vaccinated.
The EU medicines regulators said the vaccine is safe and that its benefits outweigh the risks.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) conducted its review after 13 EU states suspended use of the vaccine over fears of a link to blood clots.
According to BBC, The EMA found the vaccine was “not associated” with higher risk of clots, but said it would continue to study the possibility of such links.
The agency said it was up to individual EU countries to decide whether to re-start administering the jab.
On Monday, the three largest EU members – Germany, France and Italy – said they were awaiting the results of the EMA investigation before deciding whether to resume their rollout of the jab.
The agency’s investigation focused on a small number of cases of unusual blood disorders. In particular, it was looking at cases of cerebral venous thrombosis – blood clots in the head.
Decisions to suspend use of the vaccine sparked concerns over the pace of the region’s vaccination drive, which had already been affected by supply shortages.
The EMA’s executive director, Emer Cooke said the agency had “come to a clear scientific conclusion: this is a safe and effective vaccine.”
Acxording to Cooke, the group did not find that the vaccine caused clotting, though it could not rule out definitively a link to a rare blood clotting disorder, of which seven cases have been reported out of several million doses given in the UK.
Cooke added that the benefits of using the vaccine outweighed the risk, adding that the committee concluded that the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of thromboembolic events, or blood clots.
