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A cyberattack gave unknown persons “illegal” access to Biontech’s vaccine documents. RE.that is to say The European Medicines Agency EMA confirmed the attack.
In a cyber attack on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam, data from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Biontech was intercepted. The two companies announced it in a joint statement Thursday night after the EMA informed them of the attack. Consequently, “some documents” in connection with the two companies’ request for approval of their corona virus vaccine were caught in the attack.
Pfizer and Biontech also emphasized that their respective systems had not been attacked in this context. Furthermore, to the best of their knowledge, no data was available on the test subjects. The EMA also informed drug companies that the attack had “no effect” on the vaccine approval process.
The EMA itself did not provide any details about the cyberattack, neither about the extension of the attacked files nor about the assumptions about the attackers. A spokesperson for the authority only confirmed the attack on Wednesday afternoon, and a subsequent notification from the EMA did not provide any details. The agency only announced that a full investigation had been opened. While the investigation is ongoing, no details could be provided.
The drug authority is currently in the public eye in the crown crisis. In the EU, it is responsible for the approval process for medicines, including corona vaccines.
Admission at the end of December.
EMA Director Emer Cooke, meanwhile, commented positively Wednesday night on the possible approval of the corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer. “We are more and more convinced of the test results that we have,” he said in an interview with the Dutch television news magazine Nieuwsuur. A decision will be made at the end of December. The vaccine shows a high efficacy of almost 95 percent in 30,000 test people and has hardly any side effects.
A meeting of the EMA with all the drug authorities of the 27 EU member states is scheduled for December 29. The decision must then be made on the approval of the first corona vaccine in the EU, the director said. Until then, the experts would check the test results day and night. The director stressed that “no concessions were made” on security. The EMA is also evaluating the Modern Pharma vaccine. A decision on approval is expected on January 12. People in Britain have been immunized en masse since Tuesday.
