AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish vaccine from Oxford that lately has not moved away from the controversy after cases of a serious side effect, suspensions of its use, and inaccurate reports of its effectiveness, will be renamed Vaxzevria in Europe, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The University of Oxford preparation has been making headlines since multiple cases of thrombi were detected in people who had been inoculated in Europe. Following these reports, European countries called for a review in case there was any link between the vaccine and the side effect; some even temporarily suspended their administration.

Although the name change seemed to come in a timely manner as Europe tries to resume the use of the vaccine, the name change is supposed to be a routine procedure.

“Changing the name to a permanent brand is a common procedure,” El Mundo reported, citing the spokeswoman for the pharmaceutical company, Angela Fiorin, who said the change had been planned for months.

According to Fiorin, the preparation from Pfizer and BioNTech also has a different name in the European Union: Comiranty.

The formula of the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company is one of the vaccines against the coronavirus.

So far, its use has not been approved in the US.

After facing criticism last week for a preliminary report from its US study, AstraZeneca released updated phase three trial data for its vaccine on Wednesday, March 24. Higher efficacy had first been reported.

According to the company, its vaccine is 76% effective in protecting against cases of symptomatic viruses. A statement issued a few days earlier, on March 22, had reported a 79% symptomatic efficacy rate.

In a statement, the company admitted that the results released last Monday were an “interim analysis” with data up to February 17, but that they will “immediately” contact the US Data and Security Monitoring Council (DSMB), composed of an independent panel of experts that advises the federal government, to give you updated figures.

The Canadian Ministry of Health said that so far there have been no cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia (decrease in the number of platelets in the blood) in the country, although it has received information from other cases apart from those produced in Europe.

The DSMB expressed concern about the information published by AstraZeneca, considering that it could use outdated data. In the results released, the company said that its vaccine is 79% effective in preventing COVID-19 symptoms.

“We will immediately contact the DSMB to share our primary analysis with the most up-to-date efficacy data. We intend to get the results of the primary analysis within 48 hours,” the note underlines.

Before hearing that opinion from its scientists, the White House described as “encouraging” the study on clinical trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which indicated that this product shows 79% effectiveness in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and offers protection from 100% before serious illness and hospitalization.

In Europe, the EMA once again stressed this Wednesday that it “has not changed” its position during the ongoing investigation of rare cases of thromboembolism in patients who had received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, and maintains that the benefit “exceeds The risk of this drug.

It is the first government study of how vaccines work beyond the initial experiments by pharmaceutical companies.

Executive Director Emer Cooke explained in a press conference that the EMA convened a group of independent experts in a variety of medical specialties on Monday, including hematologists, neurologists and epidemiologists, who discussed “specifics” of the events of thromboembolism detected.

However, these experts have not been able to identify underlying drug risk factors, physiological mechanisms, or concrete data to better characterize the observed cases and the potential risk of the vaccine in “very rare” cases of unusual blood clotting such as those already detected in people vaccinated with AstraZeneca.

According to the agency, at the moment, the review has not identified “any specific risk factors, such as age, sex or a previous medical history of bleeding disorders for these very rare events” and also “has not proven a causal link with the vaccine”, although this “is possible” and that is why they continue with the analyzes.

For now, the EMA still believes that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19, which has an associated risk of hospitalization and death, “outweigh the risks of side effects” that the drug may have, Cooke said. who recalled that “the recommendations (of the EMA) are guided by science.”

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently approved for use in children under 16 years of age.

National authorities continue to notify the EMA of any suspected cases of unusual blood clots so that the PRAC can evaluate them as part of its investigation.

Europe’s safety committee expects to announce an updated recommendation on AstraZeneca during its April plenary meeting, April 6-9.

This week, German authorities suspended vaccination with this drug in people under 60 years of age, and Canada stopped its use in people under 55 as a “precautionary” measure.

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