South Africa on Tuesday suspended the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as a “precautionary measure” following the US drug agency’s decision to halt its use while cases of blood clots are investigated.
The South African country has administered more than 289,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine to health workers in that country without any reports of blood clots, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize stressed.
The South African health minister said, according to AP, that the country had suspended the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccination “as a precaution” and hoped that the doubts about its use would be “cleared up in a matter of days.
Last month, the African Union announced the signing of an agreement to buy up to 400 million doses of the J&J vaccine.
US health authorities on Tuesday recommended “a pause” in the administration of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose anti-covid-19 vaccine to allow them to investigate reports of blood clots potentially associated with taking the drug.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration said in a joint statement they were investigating blood clots detected in six women within days of receiving the drug’s vaccine in combination with low platelet counts.
Today’s developments with the J&J vaccine in the US are being closely monitored by the EMA and its pharmacovigilance bodies, in cooperation with the FDA
More than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine have already been administered in the United States.
The European Medicines Agency is “closely monitoring” developments related to Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose covid-19 vaccine, the European Commission said on Tuesday, confirming the impact on vaccination in the European Union (EU).
“Today’s developments with the J&J vaccine in the US are being closely monitored by the EMA and its pharmacovigilance bodies, in cooperation with the FDA [the federal agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services] and other international regulators,” said European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
Through a post on the social network Twitter, the official confirmed that the administration in the EU “has been put on hold by the company”, after the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson itself informed that it had made the decision to delay distribution to Europe.
“Vaccine safety is always paramount,” Stella Kyriakides said in the message on this controversy, which joins others in the EU such as delays in the delivery of covid-19 vaccines by AstraZeneca’s pharmaceutical company and the side effects of its drug, also with a possible link to cases of blood clot formation, albeit rare.
Currently, four vaccines are approved in the EU by the European Medicines Agency: Pfizer/BioNTech (Comirnaty), Moderna, Vaxzevria (new name of AstraZeneca’s vaccine) and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson group, which will be in distribution from now on).
