Photo/Illutration Doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine used to inoculate Osaka residents in August 2021 (Pool)

The government will likely throw out about half of the 120 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine because of their low usage rates stemming from concerns about blood clots.

“We spent taxpayers’ money to buy the doses,” said a senior health ministry official. “But we have no choice but to discard them when they expire.”

Some of the roughly 60 million doses are believed to have reached their expiration dates.

“To prepare for situations such as disruptions to vaccine dose supplies from overseas, we had to sign deals with multiple pharmaceutical firms and secure more doses than we needed to inoculate the entire population,” said a health ministry official. “It’s inevitable that some doses will go to waste.”

In August 2020, when the novel coronavirus was raging across Japan, the British pharmaceutical firm agreed to supply 120 million doses of its vaccine to the country starting in early 2021.

After the government signed the deal with AstraZeneca in December 2020, rare cases of blood clots were reported overseas among those inoculated with the company's vaccine.

Only about 110,000 doses of the vaccine were administered for first or second shots in Japan since only those 40 or older were eligible for the inoculation program using the AstraZeneca vaccine, in principle.

The government decided to donate up to 60 million doses of the vaccine to other countries. It has sent about 43 million doses to nations, mainly in East Asia, so far, according to the Foreign Ministry.

(This article was written by Yuki Edamatsu and Junki Watanabe.)

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