AstraZeneca defends the effectiveness of its vaccine on the elderly

The British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca defended Monday, January 25 the effectiveness of its vaccine for people over 65 years old, denying the claims of two German media that Berlin questions the performance of the product for this age group.

said a spokesman for AstraZeneca in a statement sent to AFP.

Read also: Vaccine: delivery delays worry the Twenty-Seven

The

newspaper

and the

business daily

claimed on Monday evening that the German government had doubts about the effectiveness of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, on people over the age of 65 years.

According to

, who refers to government sources, Berlin expects an efficiency of 8% for this age group.

Bild Zeitung

, who also cites anonymous government sources, writes that Angela Merkel's coalition expects the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine, which is due to receive the regulatory green light from the European Union on Friday, will not be licensed for those over 65, with a significant impact on the vaccination strategy of many countries.

Read also: Covid-19: AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine deliveries smaller than expected in Europe

The British laboratory, whose vaccine is already authorized and widely deployed in the United Kingdom, further explains in its press release that it published scientific data in the journal

in November

,

.

AstraZeneca was the subject of a call to order from the European Commission on Monday after announcing last week that deliveries of its Covid vaccine would be lower than expected in the first quarter due to a "drop in yield ”at a European manufacturing site.

Brussels deemed

these delivery delays

and now demanded

on the export outside the EU of the doses produced there.