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The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved this Monday the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 in the European Union, in a meeting that was anticipated after being initially scheduled for December 29.
“This is indeed a landmark scientific achievement,” said Emer Cooke, EMA CEO.
The vaccine will still have to have a final and formal approval by the European Commission, which is expected to happen today, before distribution to member states begins. After the 23rd, the pharmacist is authorized to begin with the distribution of the drug for the 27th in the next few days so that the vaccination process begins simultaneously on December 27, 28 and 29, as the minister had already announced. of Health, Marta Temido, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
As for the new strain that now circulates throughout Europe, and its origin was detected in London, the official says that “there are no indicators that suggest that the new variant of the virus is immune to the vaccine.”
Although the moment of approval of this vaccine is “a happy moment” and a “great step in the right direction”, the official recalls that this vaccine does not mean that containment measures and preventive behaviors should be forgotten.
“Vaccines alone will not be the sustenance that will allow us to return to normalcy, but the approval of this vaccine is certainly a big step in the right direction.”
The government plans to start vaccination against Covid-19 between December 27 and 29
In Portugal, the coordinator of the working group in charge of drafting a vaccination response against Covid-19, foresees that health centers can vaccinate up to 75,000 people a day, and plans to receive the first doses of the vaccine (about 9,750 units) between December 24 and 26.
Vaccination plan. Portugal will be ready to receive the vaccine during Christmas, guarantees ‘task force’
The European Commission has already signed contracts with the vaccine companies AstraZeneca (300 million doses), Sanofi-GSK (300 million), Johnson & Johnson (200 million), BioNTech and Pfizer (300 million), CureVac (405 million) and Modern (160 million).
Last week, the European Medicines Agency anticipated another extraordinary meeting on January 6 to complete the evaluation of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the modern pharmaceutical company, which was previously scheduled for January 12.
The EMA received last Thursday, “ahead of schedule”, the last pending package of clinical data necessary for its specialists to evaluate Moderna’s request for a conditional license to market its medicine in the European Union, which may allow the agency to anticipate the announcement of their findings on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
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