The European Union said Tuesday that the bloc could vaccinate its citizens against COVID-19 by the end of this month if medical officials provide emergency approval for the two vaccine candidates.
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels that EU member states are now planning the distribution of millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and if all goes well, he said, “the first batch of European citizens will be vaccinated in the end of December.”
The comments came as American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German counterpart, BioNTech, announced that they had submitted their application for conditional approval for a coronavirus vaccine with the European Medicines Agency. The company said in a statement that Monday’s filing completed the gradual deliberation process they began with the chart on October 6.
The move comes a day after another American company, Moderna, said it asked American and European regulators to allow the emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing. The two companies filed an application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency approval in November.
In a statement, the European Medicines Agency said it would hold a meeting on December 29 to decide whether there is enough data on the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech so that approval can be given.
The agency also said on Tuesday that it could decide at the earliest January 12 whether to approve the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna. [lt/ab]
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