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December 21, 2020The European Medicines Agency (EMA) meets today in Amsterdam in the afternoon to evaluate the approval of the coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer.

It would be the first drug against Covid-19 to be authorized for use in the European Union.



The meeting, behind closed doors, comes weeks after the vaccine was cleared by regulators in Britain, the United States and Switzerland, which announced that the vaccination campaign will start in the coming days, with a free offer and without obligation.



If the EMA gives the green light, the vaccine can be inoculated in the 27 countries of the European Union and, in this regard, the Commission will have to validate the use of the drug before it can start vaccinations (which should begin, according to officials Germans, around December 27).

Pharmaceutical companies will also have to submit follow-up data on their vaccine for the next year.



The EMA came under severe pressure last week from European countries, especially Germany, to get the vaccine approved as quickly as possible.

The Agency had originally set the meeting to evaluate the drug for December 29 but anticipated the meeting after the pressing of Berlin.



Britain, Canada and the United States have authorized the use of the vaccine under the emergency provisions: this means that the temporary use of the drug is justified by the pandemic (which has killed almost 1.7 million people across the world to date, according to Johns Hopkins University).

The EMA approval process, however, is largely similar to the normal authorization procedure that would be granted to any new vaccine, only on an accelerated schedule.



So far, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported having six cases of allergic reaction on more than 250,000 doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine administered, including one person with a history of vaccination reactions.

BioNTech and Pfizer have offered the EU 400 million doses of the vaccine, but the bloc's executive committee has chosen to buy only 200 million doses, with an option for another 100 million.