AstraZeneca’s Vaccine, Dumped by the West, Helps Fill Gaping Need in Rest of World

AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria in not authorised in the US, and other countries such as Canada, Australia and those in Western Europe have shunned it after production problems and rare but sometimes-deadly side effects, reported The Wall Street Journal.

However, the vaccine remains a "crucial workhorse" in much of the rest of the world, reaching more people in lower- and lower-middle-income countries than any other Western-made shot.

"The AstraZeneca vaccine was a lifesaver," remarked Mohga Kamal-Yanni, a global health-policy expert who advises the People's Vaccine Alliance, a consortium of health and human-rights organizations promoting drug access.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that these countries received 3.25 billion vaccines overall as of December 11, with about 1.6 billion being the AstraZeneca shots, according to data from the IMF and healthcare data firm Airfinity.

That is a bigger share than China's Sinopharm, Sinovac and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses combined, the same data show.

While Vaxzevria is not authorized in the US, AstraZeneca has said it still plans to seek full approval there by year-end. The company has struggled to compile all of the necessary data for regulators, The Wall Street Journal reported previously.