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* Philippines suspends use of AstraZeneca shot in under 60s
* African Union drops plans to buy AstraZeneca shot amid
shortages
* Indonesia seeks Chinese vaccines to make up for AZ delays
* Australia recommends Pfizer vaccine for under 50s
(Adds GAVI/WHO statement, AstraZeneca CEO comment)
April 8 (Reuters) - Australia and the Philippines limited
use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, while
the African Union dropped plans to buy the shot amid global
shortages, dealing further blows to the company's hopes to
deliver a vaccine for the world.
The vaccine - developed with Oxford University and
considered a frontrunner in the global vaccine race - has been
plagued by safety concerns and supply problems since Phase III
trial results were published in December, with Indonesia the
latest country forced to seek doses from other drugmakers.
The Philippines suspended the use of AstraZeneca shots for
people under age 60 after Europe's regulator said on Wednesday
it found rare cases of blood clots among some adult recipients,
although it still believes that the vaccine’s benefits
outweighed its risks.
Australia recommended people under 50 should get Pfizer's
COVID-19 vaccine in preference to AstraZeneca's, a
policy shift it warned would hold up its inoculation campaign.
AstraZeneca's shot is sold at cost, for a few dollars a
dose. It is by far the cheapest and most high-volume launched so
far, and has none of the extreme refrigeration requirements of
some other COVID-19 vaccines, making it likely to be the
mainstay of many inoculation programmes in the developing world.
But more than a dozen countries have at one time suspended
or partially suspended use of the shot, first on concerns about
efficacy in older people, and now on worries about rare
dangerous side effects in younger people.
That, coupled with production setbacks, will delay the
rollout of vaccines across the globe as governments scramble to
find alternatives to tame the pandemic that has killed more than
3 million.
'EXTREMELY RARE'
Italy on Wednesday joined France, the Netherlands, Germany
and others in recommending a minimum age for recipients of
AstraZeneca's shot, and Britain said people under 30 should get
an alternative. South Korea also suspended use of the vaccine in
people under 60 this week, while approving Johnson & Johnson's
one-dose vaccine.
AstraZeneca has said it is working with British and European
regulators to list possible brain blood clots as "an extremely
rare potential side-effect".
South Africa also paused AstraZeneca vaccinations last month
after a small trial showed the shot offered minimal protection
against mild-to-moderate illness caused by the dominant local
coronavirus variant.
AstraZeneca is grappling with production issues that have
led to shortfalls of its vaccine in several countries.
Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on
Thursday the country was in talks with China on getting as many
as 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to plug a gap in
deliveries caused by delays in the arrival of AstraZeneca shots.
India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of
AstraZeneca's shot made by the Serum Institute of India (SII),
the world’s biggest vaccine-maker, as domestic infections rise.
That has affected supplies to the GAVI/WHO-backed global
COVAX vaccine-sharing facility through which 64 poorer countries
are supposed to get doses from SII, the programme’s procurement
and distributing partner UNICEF told Reuters last month.
GAVI and the World Health Organisation said in a statement
on Thursday that the facility had delivered nearly 38.4 million
doses to more than 100 countries and economies across six
continents, and expects to deliver doses to all participating
economies that requested vaccines in the first half of the year.
AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot was quoted in the
statement as saying more than 37 million doses of the company's
vaccine had been delivered through COVAX.
"We continue to work 24/7 to deliver on our unwavering
commitment to broad, equitable and affordable access," he said.
The African Union is exploring vaccine options with Johnson
& Johnson, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease
Control and Prevention said. It dropped plans to buy
AstraZeneca's shot from SII to avoid duplicating efforts by
COVAX, which will continue to supply the vaccine to Africa.
Britain is slowing its vaccine rollout due to delays in a
shipment of AstraZeneca shots from India and is at loggerheads
with the EU over exports of the vaccine. Australia has also
blamed delays in its immunisation campaign on supply issues in
Europe.
AstraZeneca has cited reduced yields at a European factory
for the supply shortfall to the European Union.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux worldwide; Writing by Kirsten
Donovan; Editing by Nick Macfie and Bill Berkrot)
