British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is taking its COVID-19 vaccine off the market worldwide.
While the move follows hard on the heels of the company's admission that its shot can cause potentially deadly blood clots and in the face of a class-action lawsuit brought by apparent victims and deceased victims' families, AstraZeneca has attributed the withdrawal to commercial considerations.
Background
The Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was a viral-vector vaccine developed in collaboration with Oxford University and produced for various companies by the Serum Institute of India. It relied upon a modified version of a chimpanzee adenovirus and was sold under various brand names, including Vaxzevria and Covishield.
