AstraZeneca denies reports on low efficiency of COVID-19 vaccine

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has denied media reports that its COVID-19 vaccine is not very effective for people over 65, Abc.net.au said Tuesday.

In separate reports, German daily papers Handelsblatt and Bild said the vaccine had an efficacy of 8 per cent or less than 10 per cent, respectively, in people over 65 years of age.

German officials were concerned the vaccine may not receive approval from the European Union's European Medicines Agency for use in those over 65, Bild reported in its online edition.

The reports mark another potential issue for AstraZeneca, which told the EU last week it could not meet agreed supply targets up to the end of March after running into production problems.

Frustration was already growing among European countries because Pfizer and partner BioNTech announced a temporary slowdown in vaccine supplies earlier in January.

In a statement, AstraZeneca described the German media reports saying its COVID-19 vaccine was shown to have a very low efficacy in the elderly as "completely incorrect".

The company said the United Kingdom's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation supported the vaccine's use in the elderly.

It also said strong immune responses to the vaccine had been shown in blood analysis of elderly trial participants.