Canada To Throw Out 13.6 Mln AstraZeneca Vaccine Doses

(RTTNews) - Canada plans to throw out around 13.6 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine as it could not find any takers for the vaccine neither at home or abroad.

Canada had signed a contract with AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) in 2020 to get 20 million doses of its vaccine, and 2.3 million Canadians have received at least one dose of it, mostly between March and June 2021.

Following concerns in the spring of 2021 about rare but potentially fatal blood clots being discovered in patients, who were administered AstraZeneca, Canada focused on using its ample supplies of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

In July 2021, Canada had promised to donate the rest of its procured supply, about 17.7 million doses to other countries. However, in a statement made on Tuesday, Health Canada said that despite efforts to meet that pledge, 13.6 million doses have expired and will have to be thrown out.