It is a vaccine that targets two rapidly spreading subvariants of the Omicron strain.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Wednesday that it was aiming to approve this new anti-Covid remedy from Pfizer/BioNTech as early as the fall.
Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sublines are fueling a rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe and the United States, prompting the WHO to declare last month that the pandemic was "far from 'to be over'.
The European regulator said it launched a review on Monday of an adapted version of Pfizer's anti-Covid serum targeting these two subvariants, which are more easily transmitted and which evade the immune system more easily than earlier strains.
Two other vaccines awaiting green light
"The EMA expects to receive an application for the adapted vaccine BA.4/5 developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, which will be assessed for potential rapid approval in the fall," said an EMA spokesperson. in an email.
It should come 'soon after' the expected approval of two more tailored vaccines by Pfizer and rival Moderna, which target the original Covid-19 strain and Omicron's earlier BA.1 subvariant, the gatekeeper said. -word.
Pfizer and Moderna had filed separate approval applications for those vaccines on July 22, the spokesperson said.
The EMA has previously said that the first sera targeting Omicron could be approved as early as September.
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Covid-19: The new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines against the Omicron variant can be delivered in the fall
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