The European Medicines Agency (EMA) resumes its evaluation of the Moderna vaccine against Covid-19 on Wednesday, January 6, under pressure from the countries of the European Union, faced with an upsurge in contamination and the slowness of vaccinations.
Read also: Vaccine: for Moderna, the effectiveness is also exceptional
The EMA authorized the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine on December 21, for which the European Commission immediately gave the green light and which remains to this day the only vaccine authorized in Europe.
It must now decide on that of Moderna, an American biotechnology company headed by the French Stéphane Bancel.
“The EMA's discussions”
on this vaccine
“will continue on Wednesday,” the
Amsterdam-based European regulator said Monday evening.
The Agency had brought forward the meeting of its Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), initially scheduled for January 12.
This vaccine has already received, on December 18, emergency authorization from the United States Medicines Agency (FDA), a week after doing the same with that of Pfizer-BioNTech.
Canada followed the United States on December 23.
The future American Vice-President Kamala Harris received the first of two doses of the Moderna vaccine at the end of December, calling on all Americans to also be vaccinated.
Read also: Covid-19: Moderna's vaccine authorized in the United States
Moderna's formula has the advantage of being able to be stored at -20 ° C, and not -70 ° C like that of Pfizer, which has forced the group to develop specific containers for transport.
The two vaccines show similar efficacy rates, according to their laboratories, of 95% and 94.1% respectively for Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.
Despite vaccinations launched on December 27 in several European countries with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, these campaigns are advancing more slowly than in the United States, Great Britain or Israel.
"It is obvious that such a complex effort always encounters difficulties,"
a European Commission spokesperson recently admitted.
The British AstraZeneca, associated with the University of Oxford, for its part claimed an effectiveness rate of 70%, but which could reach 100% with two doses.
It began to be administered Monday in the United Kingdom, and received the green light from three other countries (Argentina, India, Mexico).
Read also: Pfizer, Moderna: is there a lack of "hindsight" on RNA vaccines against Covid?
In Europe, the Netherlands are starting their vaccination campaign this Wednesday, two days earlier than expected, the last country to launch.
Belgium, on Tuesday, officially began its vaccination campaign in retirement homes, after a test phase which concerned 700 people last week.
The European Medicines Agency finds itself under pressure from the governments and public opinion of the Old Continent.
The surge in infections has led some countries to extend restrictions, such as Germany and Denmark, and vaccination campaigns have sometimes sparked growing controversy, as in France.
