AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN) is ready to drop attempts to get its Covid-19 vaccine approved in the US, according to reports last night.
Sir Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca's head of research and development, told the FT that the company did not need to "push in places we are not needed or wanted".
He added if it decided not to go ahead in the US it would not have an impact around the world.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been conspicuously absent from the list of approved jabs in the US even though it has been widely administered in the UK and elsewhere around the world through the Covax scheme.
A filing for approval was expected last year but data supplied to support the application was questioned by US regulator the FDA, which wanted more information about its efficacy
Subsequent studies have shown it to be at least effective as the Pfizer and Moderna alternatives approved in the US and especially over longer periods.
Concerns over the possibility of blood clots also led to its being largely prescribed for the elderly in Europe, even though studies showed the incidences to be rare with the risks of clots from catching Covid to be far greater.
Pangalos said Astra’s focus now will be to sell its vaccine to third world countries.
Earlier this week, the pharma received UK approval for a new vaccine, Evusheld, which is an alternative for people for whom vaccines are not effective due to a poor immune system.
The drug, a combination of two long-acting human monoclonal antibodies, tixagevimab and cilgavimab, works by preventing the virus from attaching to and entering human cells and was authorised to be used “before being exposed to the risk of COVID-19 infection in order to prevent disease”.
Evusheld has already been approved in the US.
Shares in Astra Zeneca rose to 9,547p, a new all-time high for the pharma group.