AMSTERDAM, March 18 (Reuters) - The EU's drug watchdog said
on Thursday it is still convinced the benefits of AstraZeneca's
COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks following an
investigation into reports of blood disorders that prompted more
than a dozen nations to suspend its use.
The news came as the European Medicines Agency (EMA)
director Emer Cooke said the agency could not definitively rule
out a link to blood clot incidents and the vaccine in its
investigation into 30 cases of a rare blood clotting condition.
It will however update its guidance to include an
explanation about the potential risks for doctors and the
public, she said.
The agency has been under growing pressure to clear up
safety concerns after a small number of reports in recent weeks
of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts in people who
have received the shot.
The agency's review covering 5 million people, included 30
cases of unusual blood disorders in people in the European
Economic Area (EEA), which links 30 European countries.
The EMA's focus and primary concern has been on cases of
blood clots in the head, a rare condition that's difficult to
treat called cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) or a subform known
as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).
More than 45 million of the shots have been administered
across the EEA.
(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam
and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt
Writing by Josephine Mason in London;Editing by Elaine
Hardcastle)