AstraZeneca delays filing for US approval for COVID vaccine

The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said it intends to seek US authorisation for its shot in the coming weeks.

AstraZeneca said Friday that it intends to seek United States authorisation for its COVID-19 vaccine in the “coming weeks”, acknowledging a delay in the much-anticipated filing that had been expected by mid-April. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker revealed the new timetable as it released first-quarter financial results, which showed that the company delivered 68 million doses of the vaccine to the European Union, United Kingdom and other countries in the first three months of the year. The company said it was continuing to work on its application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), noting the “substantial size of the file” that will include data from US trials as well all other studies completed so far and real-world data collected from use of the vaccine in other countries.