AstraZeneca is withdrawing its Covid-19 vaccine worldwide, months after the pharma giant admitted the drug could cause very rare, but life-threatening, injuries.

The British-Swedish drugmaker has already withdrawn its EU marketing authorisation for the vaccine, branded Vaxzevria since 2021. The authorisation is the approval to market a drug in EU’s member states. The withdrawal was due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” against new variants of the novel coronavirus, the company said.

The application to withdraw the vaccine from the EU was made on 5 March and came into effect on 7 May.

“As multiple variant Covid-19 vaccines have since been developed there’s a surplus of available updated vaccines,” AstraZeneca said, adding that this led to a fall in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer manufactured or supplied.

AstraZeneca recently admitted that its vaccine, initially called Covishield, could cause very rare side effects like blood clots and low blood platelet counts, The Telegraph reported.

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