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The European Medicines Agency will approve the use of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine in Europe on December 23, advancing six days from the previous date of December 29, according to German government sources to Reuters.
Europe thus accelerates the step to allow the distribution and administration of the first vaccine against covid-19 on the continent, after the United Kingdom and the United States have already started vaccination with the product developed by the same pharmaceutical companies.
After the scientific committee of the European Medicines Agency analyzes the clinical trials and, as expected, gives the green light to the vaccine, the European Union still has to give the final ‘ok’ in the following days.
This final approval will be as quick as possible, as already assured by the Ursula von der Leyen executive, who hopes to shorten a process that can take up to 60 days to just three. This means that right after Christmas, on December 26, Pfizer and BioNTech will be able to start distributing their vaccine in Europe and the Member States will start their vaccination programs.
In mid-November, Pfizer and its German partner announced that their vaccine is 95% effective against COVID-19. Shortly after, on December 8, the United Kingdom went ahead of the rest of the world and announced the regulator’s green light for the use of the vaccine, having been followed by the United States, this Saturday, with validation by the North. US FDA.
In the European Union, the goal is for vaccination to begin shortly after authorization from the regulator and for the process to be coordinated between member states, as confirmed by Prime Minister António Costa after last week’s European Council.
At that time, assuming that the approval of the European Medicines Agency would be given on December 29, Costa signaled the start of vaccination on January 5, a deadline that could also be brought forward, given the new scheduled calendar.
“I think that if we start the vaccination operation on a European scale for the first week of January, it would be a good goal to which we should all commit ourselves,” said António Costa, adding that January 5 “is an excellent day” to point out start up.
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