The day after the announcement by the AstraZeneca laboratory of a high degree of efficacy against the coronavirus on the elderly, without however causing the risk of blood clots forming, an American institute questioned the veracity of these results. .
While the laboratory has just published the results of phase III clinical trials in the United States on 32,449 participants where the elderly represent 20% of the study group, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Allergies (NIAID), which supervises clinical trials of vaccines, estimated that AstraZeneca may have used “obsolete” data during its clinical trials in the United States.
In a statement, NIAID members urged “the company to work with the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), to assess the effectiveness of the data and ensure that the data more precise, most recent and most effective possible be made public as soon as possible ”.
The Institute said it was “concerned” by the data announced by the laboratory, estimating “that AstraZeneca may have used obsolete information during this test” in the United States, “which may have resulted in an incomplete estimate of efficacy ”of the vaccine.
The AstraZeneca laboratory, which has just announced an efficiency rate of 79% on Monday, continues to fuel controversy in the health sector in Europe and now outside the Old Continent. While its vaccine was suspended in several countries for the first time for lack of data on its effectiveness in the elderly, it was suspended a second time after several cases of death caused by blood clots, which occurred following vaccination in the AstraZeneca
But even if last week the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) gave their positive opinion on the safety of the vaccine, populations in Europe remain skeptical especially as the The vaccine’s efficacy is not as high as for its competitors used in Europe.
In addition to doubts and suspensions, Europe is in conflict with the producers of the AstraZeneca vaccine because of delays in deliveries. Indeed, the European Commission has urged the producer to honor its contract with the European Union before delivering to other countries, if necessary, the EU will block the export of vaccines produced on its territory.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel supported the threat from the European Commission. “We have a problem which is well known with AstraZeneca,” she declared at a press conference, saying that she was giving her “support” to the pressure put on the British laboratory by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who recently threatened to ban exports of this vaccine from the EU.
