Canada tossing 13.6 million AstraZeneca doses

OTTAWA - Canada is about to toss more than half of its doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine because it couldn't find any takers for it either in or outside of Canada.

A statement from Health Canada says 13.6 million doses of the vaccine expired in the spring and will be thrown out.

A year ago Canada said it would donate almost 18 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to lower-income countries.

As of June 22, almost nine million doses were delivered to 21 different nations.

But Health Canada says there is limited demand for the AstraZeneca vaccine and it hasn't been able to find more takers for the doses available.

Canada has also donated 6.1 million doses of Moderna's vaccine out of 10 million doses promised for donation, but has thrown out another 1.2 million doses of that vaccine.