EU approves Moderna Covid-19 vaccine

January 06, 2021 23:26

The European Medicines Agency has approved the Moderna vaccine, making it the second coronavirus shot to be cleared for general use across the EU, as tensions continued to rise over the slow progress of vaccination programmes in the bloc.

In a move that should ease frustrations over a shortfall in supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab and the EUs longer authorisation process, the Amsterdam-based regulator said on Wednesday it had granted a conditional marketing authorisation for Modernas Covid-19 vaccine for adults.

But Europe is lagging behind the US, Britain and Israel in vaccinations, with the bloc due to hold a virtual summit on the health crisis by the end of the month and the European council president, Charles Michel, describing mass inoculation as a gigantic challenge.

The European commission has agreed to buy 160m doses of the US-made vaccine, which has been shown in clinical trials to be 94% effective and should prove easier to deliver since it does not have to be kept as cold as the Pfizer jab.

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