Why the United States will not use the Astrazeneca vaccine
The US will not use the Astrazeneca vaccine, although the green light should come from the FDA. The doses of Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson will be enough to satisfy Washington's needs. What Fauci said
Astrazeneca's Covid-19 vaccine is of no use to the United States.
This was supported by White House virologist Anthony Fauci who, although convinced that the drug will soon be approved by the FDA, claims that Washington will not use it.
The United States, by program, should receive all the doses useful to vaccinate the entire population by the end of May from the three companies whose vaccines have already been approved by the American authorities: Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
All the details.
THE WORDS OF ANTHONY FAUCI
Let's start with Fauci's words. “We have three excellent vaccines. Even if the FDA decides it's a great vaccine, we don't need another vaccine, we have enough, ”White House virologist Anthony Fauci told CNN .
“There is no plan to start using AstraZeneca right away, although it will be approved by the FDA, which is very likely. There is nothing against this product, it's just that we have so many vaccines, we have already contracted enough vaccines, from Moderna, Pfizer and J&J, ”Fauci added.
UP TO 500 MILLION DOSES BY THE END OF MAY
Indeed, numbers and promises would prove the virologist right. According to Reuters reports, by the end of May, the three licensed vaccine manufacturers, Pfizer Inc / BioNTech, Moderna I and Johnson & Johnson, have promised to deliver nearly 500 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to the US.
THE PURCHASED DOSES
On the other hand, the number of vaccines purchased is far greater than those needed. The US has purchased 1 billion doses for a population of approximately 330 million people. Pfizer-Biontech will have to provide up to 300 million doses for $ 5.85 billion. Moderna will also have to supply 300 million doses , for 4.5 billion dollars. From Johnson & Johnson the US has secured 200 million doses for 2 billion dollars.
100 million doses purchased from Novavax and 300 million from Astrazeneca
ASTRAZENECA STILL NOT FDA APPROVED
But Astrazeneca's vaccine, like Novavax, has not yet been approved by the FDA. The Anglo-Swedish company has decided to wait for the end of the phase III study conducted on the American territory to submit the request for approval for emergency use.
The study "demonstrated a statistically significant vaccine efficacy of 79% in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% in preventing serious illness and hospitalization", reads the Astrazeneca website, which is still preparing the dossier to be presented to the authorities. American health.
AN EXPERIMENTATION WITH OBSTACLES
Astrazeneca's choice to await the arrival of new results is due to a previous experiment that was not exactly clear. Last autumn, all phase 3 global clinical trials of the vaccine were abruptly stopped after a patient in the UK presented with symptoms of transverse myelitis. The experimentation resumed after several days (45 in America). In the UK, the wrong amounts of the active ingredient were administered to some patients during the phase III clinical trial, leading to different efficacy data.
THE STOP IN EUROPE
The Astrazeneca vaccine, which now takes the name of Vaxzevria, has been suspended in several EU countries , including Italy, in recent weeks due to some thrombotic events concomitant with the inoculation of the vaccine. The drug was then rehabilitated for use with the approval of EMA, the European Medicines Agency.
Denmark and Norway have decided not to return to administer the drug yet.
THE WORDS OF THE EMA
In the past few hours, meanwhile, the EMA has again pronounced itself claiming that "the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the risks of side effects". The European Medicines Agency also added that "unusual blood clots with low platelets should be listed as very rare side effects of Vaxzevria".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/perche-gli-stati-uniti-non-useranno-il-vaccino-di-astrazeneca/ on Thu, 08 Apr 2021 13:21:39 +0000.