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The German Vaccination Committee recommends the AstraZeneca vaccine only for people under 65 years of age. It was preceded by two articles in the German newspapers Bild and Handelsblatt, in which the German government doubted the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine against covid-19 in adults over 65.
Evolution is on time that the pharmaceutical industry continues to face the European Union, due to the much fewer deliveries that will take place in the first quarter of the year in the European bloc, a fact that has already significantly disrupted the vaccination schedule in the Old Continent.
“The data available at this time is insufficient to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine after age 65,” the commission said in a decision published today by the German Health Ministry.
“The AstraZeneca vaccine, unlike mRNA vaccines, should only be offered to people ages 18 to 64,” he added.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to announce its decision to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 tomorrow Friday.
The company denied on Monday that its vaccine is not very effective in people over 65German media reported that officials expressed fears that the vaccine is not approved in the European Union for the elderly.
The German Ministry of Health announced that of the 341 vaccinated people in the group aged 65 and over, only one was infected with the coronavirus, which means that the Vaccination Committee cannot have a statistically significant data.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Sorio said his company had less data than other senior pharmaceutical companies because it then began vaccinating seniors.
“But we have strong data showing very strong antibody production against the virus in the elderly, similar to what we see in the young,” he told Die Welt earlier this week.
Positions
According to Handelsblatt, citing government sources, Berlin estimates the efficiency in this age group to be 8%.
For her part, Bild, who also cites unidentified government sources, writes that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition awaits the AstraZeneca and Oxford vaccine, which is expected to receive approval from the European Agency on Friday. The drugs (EMA) will not be approved for adults over 65 years of age, which has been a severe blow to vaccination campaigns in many countries.
The British pharmaceutical company, whose vaccine is already licensed and widely used in Britain, explained in a November statement in The Lancet the scientific data, “showing that the elderly had a strong immune response to the vaccine. 100% for produce specific antibodies after the second dose. “
“Contacts with AstraZeneca will continue”
On the EU dispute with the company, the The European Commission has announced that It will continue to work with AstraZeneca to resolve issues that have arisen, said Commission spokesman Eric Mammer, adding that contacts with the company will continue. At the same time, it reiterated that AstraZeneca has been requested in writing to make public the contract that has been signed, the subject being “under discussion.”
