EMA To Unveil AstraZeneca Blood Clot Findings

The Hague, April 7 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Apr, 2021 ) :The European Medicines Agency said it is to give its findings on a possible link between AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine and rare blood clots later Wednesday.

A virtual media conference will be held at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT), the Amsterdam-based EU drug regulator said, cautioning that the timing could change.

"EMA is holding a virtual press briefing on the conclusion of the evaluation of a safety signal with Vaxzevria (formerly Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca) relating to cases of thromboembolic events by EMA's safety committee," it said in a statement.

EU health ministers are to hold a video meeting on the issue following the EMA's media conference, Portuguese authorities, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, tweeted.

The events come amid mounting questions over the AstraZeneca vaccine after national regulators in EU countries detected dozens of cases of people with clots in blood vessels draining from the brain after receiving jabs.

A causal link is suspected, at least for relatively younger adults up to around age 55-60, though this has not been confirmed so far.

Several EU countries have restricted use of AstraZeneca's vaccine for those under that age threshold, and a British trial of the vaccine on children has been halted.

The EMA and the World Health Organization have said that, even if there was a link, the benefits of using AstraZeneca's vaccine outweighed the risk.

EMA chief Emer Cooke and senior officials from the agency will take part in the press conference.

A senior EMA official was quoted in Italian media on Tuesday as saying that there was a connection between the AstraZeneca jab and clots, and that the agency would announce it soon.

"In my opinion, we can say it now, it is clear there is a link with the vaccine," EMA head of vaccine strategy Marco Cavaleri told Italy's Il Messaggero newspaper in an interview. "But we still do not know what causes this reaction." However the EMA said later on Tuesday it had "not yet reached a conclusion and the review is currently ongoing".

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