European Union regulators have authorised the AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine for all adults.
The recomendation was announced by the European Medicines Agency this afternoon after it assessed the data on the quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
📢 EMA has just recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for the #COVID19vaccine AstraZeneca to prevent #COVID19 in people from 18 years of age. 👉Read our press release: https://t.co/YDbOvZEMUN pic.twitter.com/Sbj6TdlGTW
— EU Medicines Agency (@EMA_News) January 29, 2021
The EMA has concluded that after 4 clinical trials the AstraZeneca was safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 in people from 18 years of age.
It has acknowledged that most of the participants in these studies were between 18 and 55 years old.
The agency says it does not have enough results in older participants to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in this group.
However, it says "protection is expected, given that an immune response is seen in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines".
Therefore, the EMA’s scientific experts say that the vaccine can be used in older adults.
