The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will approve the emergency use of Pfizer and Modena's COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alix Aiza said on the 16th (local time).



Minister Aza appeared on CNBC that day and said the FDA would move as quickly as possible to approve emergency use of Pfizer-Modena's COVID-19 vaccine.



The Ministry of Health and Welfare is the FDA's superior agency.



Minister Aza said on the same day that Modena announced that the anti-corona19 effect was 94.5% as a result of mid-term inspection of its vaccine candidates, which will create a "historic day in the public health sector" in conjunction with Pfizer's similar achievements last week.



Minister Aza said the Ministry of Health and Welfare has a dedicated team to work with these two companies to eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic stumbling blocks, and at this moment, the team is completing their application for approval.



"We will independently make a ball or strike decision based on data and evidence," said Aza. "But we will do so as soon as possible, while ensuring that science, evidence and law support approval." did.



Moderna has developed a vaccine as a branch of the Donald Trump administration's Corona 19 vaccine development project, ``Ultra-Fast Operation,'' in collaboration with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), headed by Dr. Anthony Pouch.



The US government has invested over $2 billion in Modena's vaccine and has signed a contract to receive 100 million doses of the vaccine from Modena.



The contract allows the US government to purchase additional vaccines for up to 400 million doses.



The US government also signed a $2 billion contract with Pfizer to purchase 100 million doses of the vaccine in August, and can secure an additional 500 million doses.



Aza said that by the end of this year, Modena and Pfizer could produce about 40 million doses of the Corona 19 vaccine, thereby vaccinating about 20 million people.



Modena and Pfizer's vaccines require two doses to build immunity.



In addition, the United States has also signed vaccine supply contracts with other pharmaceutical companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi-Glasosmiscline, NovaVax, and AstraZeneca.



Aza said the goal is to provide enough COVID-19 vaccine to all Americans who want to get the vaccine by the second quarter of next year if all vaccines are approved.



(Yonhap News/Photo = Getty Image Korea)