Corona Vaccine AstraZeneca Not Yet Available for Use in EU

It will probably be some time before the corona vaccine from British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is approved in the European Union.

According to deputy director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Noel Wathion, the vaccine developers have not even applied to the medicine watchdog.

The United Kingdom plans to start rolling out the AstraZeneca vaccine on January 4. That is what a British regulator is about, and it seems to be about to give the green light. But on the European mainland that is still unthinkable, says Wathion, the number two at EMA.

“The data we currently have is not even enough to give the AstraZeneca vaccine a conditional authorization,” he said in an interview. With the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

The vaccination against the coronavirus in Europe has now gained momentum. Vaccinations against the coronavirus were also started in Ireland on Tuesday. This makes the Netherlands the only country in the European Union where vaccinations are not yet carried out. Our government will follow from next Friday.

All European countries use the Comirnaty vaccine from the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German BioNTech. Comirnaty is the only vaccine authorized in Europe so far.

Several pharmaceutical companies are working on vaccines worldwide. That of the American manufacturer Moderna is already awaiting approval for use in the EU. The EMA will decide on this on Wednesday next week.