The European Medicines Agency has relaxed regulations on the storage of the Biontech vaccine.
The dispute between the EU and Astrazeneca has reached the next level of escalation.
Amsterdam - According to a decision by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Corona * vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer can also be temporarily stored at less low temperatures in the future.
This also makes vaccination possible by general practitioners.
As the EMA announced on Friday, the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine can be stored for up to two weeks at temperatures between minus 25 and minus 15 degrees and thus in standard pharmaceutical freezers in pharmacies, for example.
Biontech vaccine: USA had already relaxed storage regulations
When the vaccine was approved in the EU at the end of December 2020, it was considered sensitive.
In Germany, for example, it was stipulated that it had to be stored in ultra-freezers at minus 90 to minus 60 degrees.
But at the beginning of December, Biontech announced that the vaccine could also be stored in standard refrigerators without losing stability.
In February, the US Food and Drug Administration finally relaxed the storage requirements for the Biontech vaccine *.
Now the EMA followed suit.
It should therefore not be long before the green light is also given in Germany.
EMA approves vaccine production in new Biontech plant in Marburg
The decision to store was not the only one today.
The EMA also approved the new Biontech plant in Marburg to produce the vaccine *.
The mRNA active ingredient has been produced there since February, from which the vaccine is then obtained.
In future, Astrazeneca vaccine for the EU may be produced at the Halix plant in Leiden, the Netherlands.
According to Biontech, with the approval, the Marburg plant is now one of the largest mRNA vaccine production facilities in Europe and worldwide.
The first batches from there could already be delivered in the second half of April.
EU stops export of Astrazeneca vaccine
Meanwhile, the dispute between the EU and Astrazeneca * about delivery quantities, which has been smoldering for weeks, is about to take a drastic decision.
As the news agency Reuters reports, the European Union wants to impose an export ban on vaccination doses made by the British-Swedish manufacturer within the EU.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen would carry out her threat against Astrazeneca in the delivery dispute.
The export stop should apply immediately and until the group fulfills its delivery promises to the EU, said EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
Most recently, the discovery of an Astrazeneca warehouse in Italy caused a sensation.
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