Drugmaker AstraZeneca released new data on the effectiveness of its coronavirus vaccine, showing a slight dip in efficiency in fighting the virus overall, but increased effectiveness in elderly patients, Politico reports.
The release comes just days after US federal government scientists questioned the conclusions of a tranche of data released earlier, and weeks after the companies vaccines were briefly pulled from use in Europe after reports that it caused an unusual type of potentially-fatal blood clot in some patients.
The British manufacturer lowered the overall effectiveness of its two-shot regimine from 79% to 76%, but raised the effectiveness rate from 80% to 85% among those 65 or over.
The original dataset was questioned by the Data and Safety Monitoring Board, the US federal entity responsible for reviewing testing data before making recommendations on if a drug should be given distribution approval. AstraZeneca originally submitted outdated information in its original application, while other data had been available to the board.
“The issue that the DSMB had is straightforward and very simple: The DSMB had data that they know the company had. When they saw the press release, they said, ‘wait a minute — the data in the press release do not reflect the most recent data that we know you have,'” NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said at the time.