European Union officially approves AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

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European Union has officially approved the conditional sale of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine.

It is the third vaccine approved by the European Union for conditional use after a vaccine developed by Pfizer and Modena.

This is Ahn Seo-hyun.

<Reporter> The

European Union has officially approved the conditional sale of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by the multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in the UK.

The European Medicines Agency has recommended the vaccine for those over 18 years of age. 

The AstraZeneca vaccine is the third COVID-19 vaccine approved by the European Union for conditional use, following a vaccine developed by Pfizer and Modena.

Earlier, the European Union signed a contract with AstraZeneca to purchase 400 million doses of the vaccine.

The European Union also said it will implement a system that requires pharmaceutical companies to obtain approval from member states when exporting COVID-19 vaccines produced in the EU. 

The target is vaccines from pharmaceutical companies that the EU has agreed to purchase in advance, and the period is until the end of the following month.

[Vice-Chairman of Valdis Dombroskis/EU Executive Committee: We can't waste time as vaccines are not delivered on an agreed schedule.

To achieve this, all pre-purchase agreements for vaccines produced within the European Union must be respected.]

The move came amid a conflict with the European Union after AstraZeneca announced on the 22nd that it would reduce its initial supply to Europe due to production disruptions, showing the situation in which competition for vaccines is intensifying.

The World Health Organization expressed concern that "the EU action is not helpful in the current situation," and that "vaccines should be shared fairly in all countries."