EU agency brings forward Moderna vaccine review

ANKARA

The European Medicine Agency (EMA) has announced that it brought a meeting to review Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, six days earlier than planned.

EMA said in a written statement on Thursday the committee scheduled an extraordinary meeting, initially planned for Jan. 12, to conclude its assessment for the vaccine on Jan. 6.

EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the EMA’s decision on Twitter, saying: “This is the 2nd one on which EMA will deliver a scientific opinion after the BioNTech/Pfizer one next week. We’re making good progress in securing vaccines.

I welcome @EMA_News' decision to bring forward its meeting to discuss the @moderna_tx vaccine to 6/01.

This is the 2nd one on which @EMA_News will deliver a scientific opinion after the #BioNTech / @pfizer one next week.

We’re making good progress in securing vaccines.

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 17, 2020

She previously announced that the EU will start mass vaccination for COVID-19 on Dec. 27.

The EMA -- an EU agency that authorizes the use of medicines across the member states -- also announced Tuesday that a meeting to issue a decision on the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine will be held on Dec. 21, eight days earlier than planned.

The EU has made agreements to purchase about 2 billion doses of vaccine with six companies that have so far conducted "promising" vaccine studies, including 300 million from Pfizer and BioNTech.

The bloc also signed contracts with Moderna, AstraZeneca, CureVac, Johnson & Johnson, and Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline.