The European Medicines Agency is considering urgent approval in December

"Biontech and Pfizer" apply for a European license for the "Corona" vaccine

An eight-year-old celebrates her recovery from Corona in a hospital in Argentina.

Father

Yesterday, the German company, Biontech, and its American partner, Pfizer, announced that they submitted an application to obtain a license for their vaccine against the emerging corona virus (Covid-19) in the European Union, while the European Medicines Agency announced that it will hold an extraordinary meeting, on December 29, as a date. Maximum to consider expedited marketing approval for the vaccine.

The "Biontech and Pfizer" alliance said, in a statement, that the vaccine, which tests have shown, is 95% effective against "Covid-19", will be available in Europe before the end of 2020, if it obtains the necessary license.

The alliance of the two companies applied for a license from the US Food and Drug Agency on November 20, and if the agency approved it, the campaign to vaccinate Americans will start in mid-December, and Britain is studying the two groups' vaccines in preparation for licensing it.

"We have known since the beginning of this long journey that patients are waiting for a vaccine, and we are ready to send shipments of (Covid-19) vaccine doses, as soon as we obtain the necessary license," said Albert Burla, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pfizer.

Yesterday, Biontech's Chief Financial Officer, Zirk Potting, held a press conference with the German Minister of Scientific Research, Anya Karlitsk, and said, “We have produced large quantities, and everything that is already in place can be distributed within a few hours,” noting that it is good to prepare. For this distribution, he explained that the vaccine will be supplied in boxes, and that the vaccines can be cooled in these boxes by dry ice for a period of up to 30 days in each vaccination center, or for a period of up to five days in a regular refrigerator, pointing out that the freezer boxes will be important, when it comes to The order to store for longer periods.

He added that the evaluation of the data showed that the vaccine can be well tolerated, and that it is highly effective at the same time, and said: “These results initially show that we are convinced that this vaccine can actually achieve protection from (Covid-19).”

For its part, the European Medicines Agency announced yesterday that it will hold an extraordinary meeting, on December 29 as a deadline, to consider urgent approval to market the "Biontech and Pfizer" vaccine, and the agency said in a statement: "If the information provided is sufficiently robust to reach conclusions On the quality and safety of the vaccine, the European Medicines Agency will complete its study during the extraordinary meeting.

The request submitted by the "Biontech and Pfizer" alliance came after the American company, Moderna, which also developed a vaccine, announced that it was seeking a license to launch the "Covid-19" vaccine in the United States and Europe.

Moderna and Biontech and Pfizer are based on new technology based on DNA, and it works by injecting part of the virus's genetic code into the body.

The vaccine then begins producing viral proteins and not the entire virus, which is considered sufficient to stimulate the immune system and prepare it to deal with infection.

The Moderna vaccine can be stored at temperatures up to minus 20 degrees Celsius, while the Biontech and Pfizer vaccine requires storage at temperatures up to minus 70 degrees Celsius.

The two vaccines were developed at breakneck speed in efforts to stop the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 63 million people in the world, and led to the death of more than 1.4 million people.

And «Biontech and Pfizer» previously announced that they intend to produce 50 million doses this year, and up to 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.

• «Biontech» announces the production of large quantities of the vaccine, and confirms that it can be distributed within a few hours.

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