Reputation of AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine marred by missteps

LONDON (AP) — AstraZeneca's release Monday of encouraging data about its coronavirus vaccine from its U.S. trial raised hopes that the drug company could bury doubts about the shot and put a troubled rollout behind it. But hours later, U.S. officials issued an unusual statement expressing concerns the company had included “outdated information” from its study and that it may have provided “an incomplete view of the efficacy data.”

A company spokesman said Tuesday it was “looking into it.”

Even before this latest stumble, AstraZeneca had made missteps in reporting data and faced a blood clot scare. Health officials worried that those past issues could cause lasting harm to the shot that is key to global efforts to stop the pandemic and undermine vaccine confidence more broadly.

“The way they handled their data early on, AstraZeneca basically shot themselves in the foot,” Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester, said even before the latest issue arose. “Even though the new study confirms what we previously thought about the vaccine’s efficacy, people may have lingering doubts,” he said. “Unfortunately, that might mean more people will die of COVID.”

Britain was the first to authorize the vaccine in December, based on partial results from the U.K., Brazil and South Africa. Those results suggested the shot was about 70% effective but were clouded by a manufacturing mistake the researchers didn’t immediately acknowledge. Insufficient data about how well the vaccine protected older people also led some countries including Germany and France to initially restrict its use to younger populations before reversing course.

In the U.S., officials suspended AstraZeneca’s study in 30,000 Americans for an unusual six weeks last fall, as frustrated regulators sought details about...