Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol, and Edinburgh have revealed that COVID-19 vaccinations may significantly reduce the incidence of arterial thromboses, a leading cause of heart attacks and strokes.

The study, published in Nature Communications and supported by the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre at Health Data Research U.K., analyzed de-identified health records of 46 million adults provided by NHS England.

Using health records from 45.7 million adults in England between December 2020 and January 2022, the study compared the incidence of thrombotic and cardiovascular complications up to 26 weeks after first, second, and booster doses of brands and combinations of COVID-19 vaccines used during the U.K. vaccination program with the incidence before or without the corresponding vaccination.

The incidence of common arterial thrombotic events (mainly acute myocardial infarction or heart attack and ischaemic stroke) was generally lower after each vaccine dose, brand, and combination.

There was a higher incidence of previously reported rare harms after vaccination, including:

• Vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia after the first AstraZeneca Plc's (NASDAQ:AZN) vaccine (ChAdOx1).
• Myocarditis and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle and outer lining) after the first, second, and transiently after booster mRNA vaccination, including BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) / Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) BNT-162b2 and Moderna Inc's (NASDAQ:MRNA) vaccine, mRNA-1273.

For all vaccine brands and doses, adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) were lower in the first few weeks than in later weeks. The aHR profiles for acute myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke were similar to those of composite arterial thrombosis for all vaccine brands and doses.

Similarly, the incidence of common venous thrombotic events (mainly pulmonary embolism and lower limb deep venous thrombosis) was lower after vaccination.

These findings support the wide uptake of future COVID-19 vaccination programs.

In July, AstraZeneca declared a worldwide cessation of its COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria, due to an "excess of updated vaccines."

Earlier, Pfizer raised its 2024 guidance to $8.5 billion from $8 billion but reaffirmed that $5 billion would come from BioNTech's partnered Comirnaty-COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna also lowered its 2024 sales guidance on Thursday due to weaker demand for its COVID-19 vaccines.

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