Germany recommends AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine only for people under 65
- ‘There are currently insufficient data available to assess the vaccine efficacy from 65 years of age,’ Germany’s vaccine committee says
- The drug maker and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the effectiveness of the company’s shot
“There are currently insufficient data available to assess the vaccine efficacy from 65 years of age,” the committee, also known as Stiko, said in a draft resolution made available by the German health ministry on Thursday.
“The AstraZeneca vaccine, unlike the mRNA vaccines, should only be offered to people aged 18-64 years at each stage,” it added. Stiko’s assessment was based on the same trial data published by medical journal The Lancet on December 8.
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A spokesperson for the UK-based company said the latest clinical trial data for its vaccine, developed with Oxford University, “support efficacy in the over 65 years age group”.
The company is awaiting a decision from the EU’s medicines regulator, the spokesperson added.
Johnson told reporters that the UK’s own regulator had established “that they think the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is very good and efficacious, gives a high degree of protection”.
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The German health ministry said of the 341 people vaccinated in the group aged 65 and over, only one became infected with the coronavirus, meaning the expert vaccine panel had not been able to derive a statistically significant statement.
AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said the company had less data than other drug makers on the elderly because it started vaccinating older people later.
“But we have strong data showing very strong antibody production against the virus in the elderly, similar to what we see in younger people,” he told Die Welt newspaper in an interview earlier this week.
Spahn said there were younger age groups with existing conditions who were waiting to be vaccinated, adding the final recommendation on the use of the AstraZeneca shot would only come following EU approval.
As well as those aged over 80 and people living in senior citizens’ homes, Germany is prioritising frontline medical and care staff.
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In late December, Britain became the first country to approve the coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
The government said it would not recommend one vaccine over another for different cohorts of the population, even though data on the AstraZeneca/Oxford shot’s efficacy in older people is currently limited.
It began rolling out the vaccine in January in a campaign that has targeted older people and seen more than 7 million given their first dose. Britain has also been using the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
