Europe Approves Vaxzevria Vaccinations for Third Booster Dose

AstraZeneca announced yesterday that its COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria, was granted approval in the European Union (EU) by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) as a third dose booster in adults.

The company stated on May 23, 2022, 'Healthcare professionals can now use Vaxzevria as a third dose booster in patients previously given a primary vaccine schedule of either Vaxzevria or an approved mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and now have greater flexibility in their choice of a vaccine.'

Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, said in the related press release, "Ensuring a longer duration of immune protection is essential to the long-term management of COVID-19 globally, and boosters can address the waning of protection over time that has been seen with all primary vaccine schedules to date."

Vaxzevria is already authorized as a homologous booster (patients previously given a primary vaccine schedule of Vaxevria) in the UK and several countries in Asia and Latin America.

It has also been authorized as a heterologous booster (patients previously given a primary vaccine schedule of either a viral vector vaccine other than Vaxzevria or an inactivated vaccine or an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine) in several non-EU countries.

Since the initial authorization, Vaxzevria is estimated to have helped prevent 50 million COVID-19 cases and five million hospitalizations and saved more than one million lives worldwide, based on model outcomes assessing COVID-19 worldwide.

Note: This announcement was curated for mobile readers.