EU regulator says decision on whether to authorize Moderna vaccine will not be made until Wednesday

Updated 46 minutes ago

The EU MEDICINES watchdog will not make a decision on Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine until at least Wednesday.

It was previously said that a decision could be reached today, earlier than expected.

However, a statement issued tonight said the discussions will continue on Wednesday.

The statement said the EMA’s committee for human medicines (CHMP) discussions on the Moderna vaccine were not concluded today.

“It will continue on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. The EMA will not issue further communications today,” the brief statement noted.

The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency had already accelerated the decision from the originally scheduled date of January 12 under pressure from EU countries as infections surge.

In a clinical trial of 30,400 people, the US-based Moderna jab was found to be 94.1% effective in preventing Covid-19 compared to a placebo.

The Moderna vaccine would be the second to be approved for the EU, after the EMA gave the green light to the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in another expedited decision on December 21.

However, the EMA said last week that the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which was approved on Wednesday in Britain, is unlikely to get the green light in the EU in the next month.

With Britain and the United States each pushing through the emergency authorization of two vaccines, the EMA has come under pressure to speed up its regulatory process, especially from Germany.

The EMA moved from London to Amsterdam after Brexit.

According to the Irish government’s National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy, Ireland has ordered 880,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine.

With reports from © AFP 2021 and Órla Ryan