The German Expert Group on Vaccine Use (STIKO) said today that it recommends that AstraZeneca’s Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19) vaccine be administered only to people between the ages of 18 and 64 because of insufficient data on the protection of the elderly.
In a resolution provided by the German Ministry of health, the panel noted that “there are insufficient data to assess the efficacy of the vaccine in people aged 65 years and older” and that “unlike the mRNA vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine should only be offered to people aged 18-64 years administered.”
According to STIKO’s recommendations, “apart from this limitation, the vaccine is considered suitable.” STIKO did not elaborate on clinical trial data for the vaccine in older people, but 2 prominent German media outlets reported that the effectiveness in people over 65 was less than 10 percent.
Astellicom denied Monday that the vaccine was ineffective for people over 65, with Chief Executive Pascal Soriot saying the company had less data on older people than other vaccinators because it only started vaccinating them later, but that there were strong data suggesting that the vaccine offered similar protection to younger people.
Astellicom’s martial lung vaccine, developed with Oxford University, has not yet been licensed for use in the European Union, and a decision on approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected tomorrow.
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