After more than three billion doses produced, the Oxford-AstraZeneca covid vaccine will be withdrawn.
AstraZeneca said it was "extremely proud" of the vaccine, but that it had made a commercial decision.
The company stated that the development of new variants of the corona virus means that demand has turned to new, modified vaccines.
AstraZeneca's vaccine is estimated to have saved millions of lives during the pandemic, but also caused rare and sometimes fatal blood clots.
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In the race to get the world out of pandemic quarantine, scientists from the University of Oxford have created a vaccine in record time.
The process, which under normal circumstances would take ten years, was accelerated to ten months.
In November 2020, it was announced as the "vaccine for the world" as it was significantly cheaper and easier to store compared to other covid vaccines.
The pharmaceutical giant, AstraZeneca, agreed to mass produce it.
Initially, this vaccine was the cornerstone of Great Britain's plan to end the quarantine period by vaccination.
"The truth is that it made a huge difference.
"It pulled us out of the disaster that was unfolding at the time, along with another one, the Pfizer vaccine," said Professor Adam Finn from the University of Bristol.
However, due to the appearance of unusual blood clots as a rare side effect, the reputation of this vaccine was shaken and the UK turned to other alternatives.
"According to independent estimates, more than 6.5 million lives were saved during just the first year" of vaccine use, AstraZeneca said in a statement.
"Our efforts have been recognized by governments around the world and seen as a key element in ending the global pandemic."
The company said the development of new vaccines, more suited to the mutated forms of covid currently circulating, meant there was a "surplus of available improved vaccines".
Therefore, there has been a "decrease in demand" for this vaccine, which is "no longer produced or supplied," the announcement reads.
"I think the withdrawal of the vaccine simply reflects that it is no longer useful.
"It turns out that this virus changes very easily and that it has evolved in relation to the original vaccines, which in a certain way have become irrelevant and now only modified vaccines will probably be used," Finn said.
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