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U.S. regulators have temporarily halted use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine while they examine six cases of rare blood clots that have been reported in people who have received the shot.
Shares of J&J
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were down 2.7% in premarket trading on Tuesday.
In a joint statement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said there have been six cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. While this is considered a concerning blood-clotting disorder, it has occurred rarely — there have been six cases out of the roughly 6.8 million people in the U.S. who have received this vaccine.
“We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” health officials said Tuesday.
J&J did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
AstraZeneca’s
AZN,
AZN,
COVID-19 vaccine, which has not been authorized in the U.S., has faced similar concerns of rare blood clots, with some European countries halting use of the vaccine. Researchers in Austria and Germany last week tied the blood clots reported in Europe to the AstraZeneca vaccine, referring to the instances as “vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia.”
The AstraZeneca and the J&J vaccines are both adenovirus vaccines, which differ from the mRNA vaccines developed by BioNTech SE
BNTX,
/Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
and Moderna Inc.
MRNA,
All six of the U.S. cases of post-vaccination blood clots occurred in women, between the ages of 18 and 48 years old, within 6 to 13 days of getting the shot.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which recommends use of vaccines after the Food and Drug Administration authorization, will meet Wednesday to review the cases. One reason cited for the pause is to ensure that health care providers are prepared to treat blood clots if they occur.
