Some EU members demand quicker nod for COVID vaccine
BERLIN — As the U. S. starts its mass inoculation drive and Britain continues its vaccine rollout, some in Europe are chafing at their wait for approval of a COVID- 19 shot, which Germany is now demanding happen sooner than planned.
That may indeed come to pass after Tuesday’s announcement by the European Medicines Agency that it was moving its previously scheduled Dec. 29 meeting on the Pfizer- BioNTech COVID- 19 vaccine to Monday. The regulator said it made the decision after receiving additional data from the vaccine makers.
But the date change also came after Berlin and other European capitals increasingly expressed impatience with the agency’s timetable.
“Our goal is an approval before Christmas,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters Tuesday. “We want to still start vaccinating this year.”
The agency said its human medicines committee would “conclude its assessment” of the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine as early as possible “once the data on the quality, safety and effectiveness of the vaccine are sufficiently robust and complete to determine whether the vaccine’s benefits outweigh its risks.”
If the committee recommends authorization, the European Union’s Executive Commission would “fasttrack its decision- making process” to approving the vaccine for all 27 EU nations within days, the agency said.
Spahn suggested that approval could be granted by Dec. 23.
Italy, where Europe’s coronavirus outbreak erupted in February and which now leads the continent in the COVID- 19 death count, also pressed for a safe, accelerated approval process.
“My hope is that the EMA, in compliance with all safety procedures, will be able to approve the PfizerBioNTech vaccine earlier than expected and that vaccinations can also begin in the countries of the European Union as soon as possible,” Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza said in a statement.
Germany has set up more than 400 vaccination centers, has lined up about 10,000 doctors and medical staffers and was prepared to start mass vaccinations as early as Tuesday, Spahn said. But as a member of the EU, Europe’s most populous country is still awaiting approval of a vaccine by the medicines agency.
The shot developed by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech has already been authorized for use in Britain, which began administering injections last week, and the U. S. and Canada, which launched their vaccination campaigns Monday.
Seeing the vaccine being given to thousands of people elsewhere was galling for many Germans.
“It cannot be that a vaccine that has been developed in Germany is only approved and [ used here] in January,” said Christine Aschenberg- Dugnus, a federal lawmaker with the pro- business Free Democrats.
The German Hospital Assn. chimed in, demanding that the EU shorten its lengthy approval process.
“Europe should try to get an emergency authorization earlier,” association President Gerald Gass told the RND media group. “That way we could still go into nursing homes with mobile teams before Christmas and vaccinate the residents.”