AstraZeneca's vaccine is only licensed for 18 to 55-year-olds

MadridThe Spanish Ministry of Health, together with the regions, has decided this Friday to authorise the AstraZeneca vaccine only for the population aged between 18 and 55. In the end, those aged between 55 and 65 were also excluded because clinical trials of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have only involved under-55s. This is the position agreed between the Spanish government and the autonomous communities meeting this Friday at the Public Health Commission of the Interterritorial Council. The Generalitat had defended the exclusion of the vaccine only to those over 65 years and under 18 and had criticised the Spanish government's delay in making a decision.

The Spanish government has also confirmed that this weekend the first vaccines from AstraZeneca will arrive in Spain and will begin to be distributed among the different communities. The Ministry of Health has established that, for this vaccine, 10 to 12 weeks will have to elapse between the first and second dose, as advanced by the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias.

Last week, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended its authorisation for adults under 65, but each European country can decide its own age limit. Most member states, such as France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, have licensed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for adults up to 65. Spain chooses to be more conservative and limit it to 55, while the UK has decided to administer it to those over 65 as well.