In a first, AstraZeneca admits its Covid vaccine Covishield can cause rare side effects

AstraZeneca, for the first time, admitted in its court documents that its Covid vaccine can cause rare side effects, paving way for a multi-million pound legal payout, The Telegraph reported on Sunday.

The pharmaceutical company is being sued in a class action over claims that its vaccine against Covid-19, developed with the University of Oxford, caused death and serious injury, including TTS — Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome — which causes people to have blood clots and a low blood platelet count.

AstraZeneca, in collaboration with The University of Oxford, had developed AZD1222 vaccine after the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020. In India and other low-and-middle-income countries, it was manufactured and supplied under the name “Covishield” by Serum Institute of India (SII) through a licence from the university and the Swedish-British drugmaker.

According to The Telegraph, while it is contesting the claims, AstraZeneca admitted in a legal document submitted to the High Court in February, that its Covid vaccine “can, in very rare cases, cause TTS”.

Lawyers have argued that the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is “defective” and that its efficacy has been “vastly overstated.” AstraZeneca has strongly denied these claims.

51 cases have been lodged in the High Court, with victims and grieving relatives seeking damages estimated to be worth up to £100 million, the report stated.

The first case was lodged in 2023 by Jamie Scott, who was left with a permanent brain injury after developing a blood clot and a bleed on the brain, since April 2021 when he received the vaccine. In a letter of response sent in May 2023, AstraZeneca had told lawyers who stood for Mr Scott that “we do not accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine at a generic level”.