AZN Stock Price and Forecast: AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine suspended in Germany

• AZN covid 19 vaccine under increased scrutiny after reports of blood clots.
• Austria stops using a batch of AZN's covid 19 vaccine.
• AZN vaccine shows no evidence so far of being linked to Austrian cases according to EMA.

Update: Germany has now added to the growing list of countries that have suspended AstraZeneca's covid 19 vaccine. Germany's Health Minister says need to wait for approval for European Medicines Agency, says risk is very low but connection with vaccine cannot be ruled out, Reuters.

Update: AstraZeneca has been under increasing scrutiny this weekend as further countries announce temporary usage suspensions of AZN's covid-19 vaccine. Ireland and the Netherlands announced a temporary suspension on Sunday, joining Iceland who earlier had also suspended the vaccine. Indonesia has joined the delay saying it will await a review from the WHO. On Friday the WHO said there is no indication that the reported events were caused by the vaccine and earlier last week the European Medicines Agency has echoed this view. AstraZeneca said it had staged a review of over 17 million people who had received the vaccine in the EU and UK and saw no evidence of increased risk of blood clots, according to Reuters. It is a further problem for the EU's sluggish start to vaccinating its population as the EU block struggles with vaccine supply. 

AZN shares are currently trading £69.60 in London, up 0.1%

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AstraZeneca shares were under pressure on Thursday as Reuters reports that Denmark has temporarily suspended its covid 19 vaccine, after reports of cases of blood clots forming. AZN shares are currently $49 down 1.6% in Thursday's pre-market. AZN shares in London are trading £70.24 down 2.3%.

AZN Stock News

Denmark is to suspend the use of AstraZeneca's covid 19 vaccine for two weeks according to Reuters. Denmark is to investigate reported cases of blood clots forming. Denmark did not say how many cases.  "Both we and the Danish Medicines Agency have to respond to reports of possible serious side-effects, both from Denmark and other European countries," the director of the Danish Health Authority, Soren Brostrom, said in a statement, "It is important to emphasise that we have not opted out of using the AstraZeneca vaccine, but that we are putting it on hold," Brostrom said. Reuters. 

Reports from Austria say it is also investigating a particular batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine again coming from Reuters. "We informed all European colleagues in the European network as this batch, which amounted to roughly a million doses in total, was sent to 17 European countries," Christa Wirthumer-Hoche, the head of Austrian public health agency AGES' medicines market supervisory body said-Reuters.

AstraZeneca said all batches are subject to strict and rigorous quality controls and "no confirmed serious adverse events associated with the vaccine".

The European Medicines Agency said on Wednesday "The Austrian national competent authority has suspended the use of a batch of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca (batch number ABV5300) after a person was diagnosed with multiple thrombosis (formation of blood clots within blood vessels) and died 10 days after vaccination, and another was hospitalised with pulmonary embolism (blockage in arteries in the lungs) after being vaccinated. The latter is now recovering. As of 9 March 2021, two other reports of thromboembolic event cases had been received for this batch.

"There is currently no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects with this vaccine", the EMA said.

Spain also said on Thursday that it has not seen any issues with blood clots related to AstraZeneca's covid vaccine and will keep using it, according to Health Minister Carolina Darias, "so far, no causal relation between the vaccine and the blood clot events has been established", Reuters reports.

AstraZeneca said on Thursday that the safety of the vaccine has been extensively studied in Phase III clinical trials, peer reveiwed data confirms the vaccine has been generally well tolerated.

AZN Stock forecast

AZN shares are currently £70.24 in London, their main listing. AZN shares have recovered from recent pressure as global markets have rallied. Resistance comes at £71.94 and then a test of £74.68 which would break the bearish cycle of lower highs. Support at £68

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