AstraZeneca finds no evidence showing increased risk of blood clots with COVID-19 vaccine – UPDATED

March 14 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca Plc on Sunday said it had conducted a review of people vaccinated with its COVID-19 vaccine which has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.

The review covered more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and United Kingdom.

“A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and UK with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country,” the statement said.

The company said that safety data of people vaccinated in EU, UK  shown no evidence of increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.

Reported events of pulmonary embolism reported among those given vaccine is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in general population of this size.

The company said that it is keeping this issue under close review but available evidence does not confirm that vaccine is the cause.

During the production of vaccine more than 60 quality tests are conducted by company, its partners & by more than 20 independent testing laboratories. Additional testing is being conducted by co independently by european health authorities and none of re-tests shown cause for concern.

In terms of quality, there are also no confirmed issues related to any batch of our vaccine used across europe, or rest of world, adding that “we are going beyond standard practices for safety monitoring of licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety” furthermore, in clinical trials, even though number of thrombotic events was small, these were lower in vaccinated group. It also stated that there has also been no evidence of increased bleeding in over 60,000 participants enrolled.

The British MHRA also issued a statement saying that it is aware of the action in Ireland, the MHRA is closely reviewing reports but given the large number of doses administered, and the frequency at which blood clots can occur naturally, the evidence available does not suggest the vaccine is the cause. It added People should still go and get their COVID-19 vaccine when asked to do so.