Europe's drug regulator said on Friday that it is reviewing rare blood clots in four people in the United States who received Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, Reuters reported.
The European Medicines Agency's safety committee has also been looking at how AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine is associated with very rare cases of unusual blood clots and said it was now reviewing reports of capillary leak syndrome in people given AstraZeneca's vaccine.
Johnson & Johnson said it was aware of the rare reports of blood clots in individuals given its COVID-19 vaccine, and added it was working with regulators to assess the data and provide relevant information.
"At present, no clear causal relationship has been established between these rare events and the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine," the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Nearly 5 million people in the United States had received J&J's vaccine as of Thursday morning, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report from the European Medicines Agency is the first to mention a probe of blood clots associated with the J&J vaccine.
It follows a probe of blood clots in the brain reported in people given the AstraZeneca vaccine.
A host of countries, including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, recently suspended use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine amid reports of dangerous blood clots forming in some vaccinators. Some of those countries have resumed inoculations.
The European Union's drug regulatory agency issued a statement two weeks ago saying that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is not linked to an overall increase in risk of blood clots.
In its report on Friday, EMA's safety committee said unusual blood clots linked with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
J&J's single-dose vaccine has been approved for EU use, but a rollout is yet to begin. It is mainly being used in the United States at the present time.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)