Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine's benefits outweigh risk of side effects: EU regulator

The European Medicines Agency on Wednesday said that the benefits of the vaccine made by Johnson & Johsnson in preventing COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side effects, said the Amsterdam-based European Union medicines regulator said on Wednesday.

According to CNN, the agency, which is in charge of verifying the safety of vaccines for the European Union also said it is still assessing the "very rare cases of unusual blood clots with low platelets" with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

"EMA is expediting this evaluation and currently expects to issue a recommendation next week," the agency said.

"EMA is investigating all the cases reported and will decide whether regulatory action is necessary. The Agency is working closely with the US FDA and other international regulators" they pointed out.

As per CNN, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration yesterday recommended that the United States pause the use of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine following reports of several cases of a "rare and severe" type of blood clot.

The six reported cases were among more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered in the United States.

Johnson & Johnson also announced yesterday that it was pausing deliveries of its single-dose vaccines to the European Union that had started on Monday. A delivery of 200 million doses to the EU has been scheduled for the second quarter of this year.

( With inputs from ANI )