AMSTERDAM (AP) – The European Medicines Agency (EMA) was meeting on Wednesday to consider giving the green light to Moderna’s vaccine against COVID-19, a decision that would give the European Union a second vaccine in its desperate battle to stop. the virus that is sweeping the continent.
The meeting of the committee on medicines for human use of the EMA comes before the rise in the rate of infection in many of the 27 nations of the bloc and strong criticism for the slowness with which vaccination is carried out in the region of 450 million inhabitants.
The EMA approved in December the vaccine from the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German company BioNTech. Both require two doses.
Before the meeting on the one developed by Moderna, the agency explained in a tweet that its experts were “working hard to clarify all outstanding problems with the company,” but did not offer further details. Moderna declined to comment.
Early study results, still unfinished, show that Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines appear safe and have high protection, although Moderna is easier to handle because it does not need to be deep frozen.
The United States, Canada and Israel have already approved this drug. If the EU joins the list, the decision will have to be confirmed by the European Commission before vaccination can start.
Both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are messenger RNA vaccines, made with a revolutionary new technology. They do not contain any coronaviruses, which means that they cannot cause infection. Instead, they use a part of the genetic code that teaches the immune system to recognize the proteins on the surface of the virus and prepares it to attack if the virus is contagious.
The EU officially started the vaccination campaign with Pfizer-BioNTech on December 27, but the rate at which they are administered varies widely by country. France immunized about 500 people in the first week, while Germany inoculated 200,000.
For its part, the Netherlands was the last country in the bloc to start its campaign. The first person to receive it was Sanna Elkadiri, a nurse at a nursing home for people with dementia in Veghel, 120 kilometers (75 miles) southeast of the capital, Amsterdam.
The Dutch government will first immunize staff in senior centers and frontline hospital workers.
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Corder reported from The Hague, The Netherlands.
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