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ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss drug regulator Swissmedic has licensed the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, the agency said on Saturday, calling it the first approval of its kind in the world under a standard procedure.
Two months after receiving the request, Swissmedic granted authorization for the vaccine in an ongoing review of the submitted documents.
Other countries have already approved it for emergency use to help curb the global coronavirus pandemic.
“The data available to date showed a comparable high level of efficacy in all investigated age groups, thus meeting the safety requirements,” it said on its website.
“Patient safety is an essential prerequisite, especially when it comes to vaccine licensing,” said Swissmedic Director Raimund Bruhin.
“Thanks to the continuous procedure and our flexibly organized teams, … we were able to make a decision quickly, while fully meeting the three most important requirements of safety, efficacy and quality.”
Swissmedic is also reviewing COVID-19 vaccine requests made by Moderna and AztraZeneca.
Reporting by Michael Shields, edited by William Maclean
