(Apr. 8) Two drug regulators issued a warning about AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine, acknowledging a link to a rare type of blood clots and prompting the U.K. to limit the shot’s use in younger adults.

The U.K. is now advising that those under the age of 30 be offered an alternative vaccine if one is available, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said Wednesday.

In the European Union, the European Medicines Agency found a “strong association” with blood clots. While the regulator didn’t issue any guidelines about age, the bloc’s health ministers are likely to recommend limiting use to people over 60, Italy’s Ansa reported without citing the source of the information.

The warnings dealt another blow to the vaccine Astra developed with the University of Oxford and continued to cloud its global rollout, despite regulators’ insistence that the product’s benefits outweigh its risks, that the clot occurrences are rare and that the shot should remain a vital tool in the pandemic fight.

“We need to use the vaccines we have to help protect us from the devastating effects” of Covid-19, which causes thousands of deaths every day across the EU, said Emer Cooke, the EMA’s executive director. “When millions of people receive these vaccines, very rare events can occur.”

Governments are keen to accelerate vaccination campaigns as Europe battles a third wave of the virus. Italy, France and Germany have imposed fresh lockdowns recently, and the EU’s plodding inoculation rollout lags far behind those in the U.K. and the U.S.

Concerns about the vaccine center on an unusual type of blood clot in the brain called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. There were also some cases of clots in the abdomen and in the arteries, which occurred together with low levels of blood platelets. Patients should watch out for symptoms that include chest pain, leg swelling, belly pain and shortness of breath two weeks after vaccination, according to the EMA.

“These clotting disorders are very rare side effects,” Sabine Straus, the head of the EMA’s safety committee, said at a briefing. June Raine, the chief executive of the U.K.’s MHRA, also stressed that such events were unusual.

Astra said it’s studying the individual cases to understand the “epidemiology and possible mechanisms that could explain these extremely rare events.” It’s also working with regulators on their request for new labels on its shots, it said in a statement.

EU health ministers are meeting to try to achieve a joint position on vaccination, according to Portugal, the country holding the EU’s rotating presidency. Individual countries may come up with different recommendations based on their own epidemic situation, the EMA’s Cooke said.

The vaccine has been dogged by controversy in the EU. Before the health concerns, the drugmaker got embroiled in a battle with the bloc after a production issue led to delivery delays.

Now the company will need to conduct addition research about the side effects, including laboratory studies to better understand to vaccine’s impact on clotting, the EMA said. The universities of Utrecht and Erasmus in the Netherlands will also look into the risk at the EMA’s request, with data expected in the next few months.

---
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm

Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.

To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app.

Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30​

Connect with us on…
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg
Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews
Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake