BRUSSELS, Belgium (CU)_The European Union gave the greenlight for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by American biotechnology company Moderna Inc. on Wednesday (Jan 6), thereby providing the bloc with a second vaccine, as countries across the continent battle to tame the virus.
Against a backdrop of high infection rates and the slow pace of vaccination across the region, the European Commission granted conditional marketing authorization for the vaccine, which is said to be 94.1 per cent effective at preventing COVID-19.
“We are providing more COVID-19 vaccines for Europeans. With the Moderna vaccine, the second one now authorized in the EU, we will have a further 160 million doses. And more vaccines will come,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.
An Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Emer Cooke, acknowledged the efforts of those who were involved in the in developing and approving the Moderna vaccine, adding that now, the 27-nation bloc is provided with another tool to overcome the current crisis.
The EU has ordered 80 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and is committed to buying 300 million doses of the vaccine developed by American drug maker Pfizer in collaboration with Germany’s BioNTech, which was granted the same conditional approval by the EMA last month.
According to the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides, the authorisation of the Moderna vaccine will ensure that 460 million doses will be rolled out with increasing speed in the European Union.
Meanwhile, German Health Minister Jens Spahn, who has publicly criticised the slow pace of the EMA, said the Moderna vaccine is expected to begin rolling out in the EU nations next week, and Germany would receive 2 million doses in the first quarter of 2021, and 50 million in all of this year.
According to Spahn, given the issue of shortage in production capacity with global demand, bulk-buying for the entire bloc was the right thing to do, since it gives manufacturers certainty to go ahead with production, and also ensures a fair distribution to all EU member states.
Both Moderna’s and Pfizer-BioNTech’s shots are mRNA vaccines, which, according to early results of unfinished studies, are safe and strongly protective, although the Moderna vaccine is easier to handle, unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech jab which needs ultra-cold storage at -70C.
