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Amsterdam / Brussels (dpa) - The US manufacturer Johnson & Johnson has now also applied for European approval for its corona vaccine.
This was announced by the EU Medicines Agency EMA on Tuesday in Amsterdam.
The authority wants to assess the vaccine by mid-March.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the manufacturer's move.
The EU Commission will grant approval as soon as the EMA has given a positive scientific assessment, said von der Leyen.
It would then be the fourth corona vaccine with conditional marketing authorization for the European Union.
The vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca can currently be used.
But the vaccine is still in short supply across the EU.
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The EU Commission has ordered vaccination doses for 200 million people from Johnson & Johnson.
The specialty: one dose is likely to be sufficient for immunization.
All other vaccines currently in use must be injected twice.
The EMA said it would test the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen-Cilag International NV in an accelerated process.
The committee responsible could give its assessment in mid-March.
The prerequisite is that the company's data on the effectiveness, safety and quality of the vaccine are comprehensive and robust.
Such a short check is only possible because the EMA has already examined some data in advance in the so-called rolling review process.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210216-99-467392 / 2