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After an unprecedented development process, but which for most people probably felt like an eternity, today comes a long-awaited message from the EU Agency for Medicines. Should Pfizers / Biontech vaccines get the green light?
European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, covid-19 vaccines are already in full swing. Hundreds of millions of Europeans, on the other hand, have had to wait for the green light from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which last week announced that it was advancing its decision, after strong pressure from several member states.
Preliminarily at three in the afternoon on Monday, the message from Amsterdam is expected, according to the Swedish Medicines Agency. Should the EMA approve the American Pfizer vaccine and the German Biontech vaccine, it is up to the European Commission to make the final decision before the vaccines can start. That approval would come later on Wednesday.
Vaccinations are expected to begin on December 27. Medical students, retired healthcare professionals, pharmacists and soldiers have been summoned to strengthen regular medical care in EU member states under the unprecedented task of vaccinating hundreds of millions of people in a short time against a virus that it has paralyzed the world economy and forced medical care to its knees.
The EU’s goal is for at least 70% of the Union’s 450 million inhabitants to have the injection.
Several Member States criticize that the EU bureaucracy has not worked faster to approve the vaccine, which in turn has developed at record speed. In Germany, which has invested hundreds of millions of euros in the development of the vaccine, politicians on both sides have expressed dissatisfaction at the delay in approval.
“The confidence of citizens in the EU’s capacity for action is at stake,” said German Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) a week ago.
Social Democrat SPD health spokesman Karl Lauterbach, who is also a professor of epidemiology, also criticizes the delay in relation to the United States and the United Kingdom.
– There is a need for explanation here. Why has the UK already launched a German vaccine, while we cannot? He asked in an interview with T-Online.
Others point out that the EU, unlike the US and UK, allows the approval process to proceed according to all the rules of the art, rather than issuing special emergencies.
That’s what the vaccine costs
The EU has negotiated the price of EUR 15.50 (about SEK 157) for a dose of Pfizer / Biontech’s covid-19 vaccine, according to non-public documents obtained by the Reuters news agency.
The cost is slightly lower than in the United States, which accepted the price of $ 19.50 for the same vaccine.
Facts: Reuters
