FDA pulls authorization for AstraZeneca COVID treatment, says it's ineffective against some variants

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week pulled its emergency use authorization of a COVID-19 treatment, claiming multiple variants of the virus that causes the disease are rendering it ineffective. 

The FDA said in a Friday press release that AstraZeneca's Evusheld preventative medicine "is not expected to provide protection against developing COVID-19" if patients are exposed to certain variants of SARS-CoV-2. 

The variants in question "are projected to be responsible for more than 90% of current infections in the U.S.," the FDA said. The revocation of the use authorization will be maintained "until further notice by the Agency."

The agency had already warned earlier this month that the treatment was likely increasingly ineffective against new forms of SARS-CoV-2.