BERLIN (Reuters) – AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine should only be given to people aged between 18 and 64, Germany’s vaccine committee said in a draft update to its vaccine recommendation, a day ahead of a decision by European regulators on the drugmaker’s shot.
“There are currently insufficient data available to assess the vaccine efficacy from 65 years of age,” the committee 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.”
The European Medicines Agency is expected to make a decision on whether to approve AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Friday.
AstraZeneca denied on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine is not very effective for people over 65, after German media reports said officials fear the vaccine may not be approved in the European Union for use in the elderly.
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 STIKO had not been able to derive a statistically significant statement.
AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said the company had less data than other drugmakers 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.
(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
