EMA Could Approve COVID-19 Vaccines Early 2021

The European Medicines Agency could approve three COVID-19 vaccines early next year, its Executive Director Guido Rasi said on October 16, according to a report by Italian news agency ANSA.

“If everything goes well, in the first months of 2021, there could be three vaccines approved by EMA. But everything has to go well. There’s a little hitch behind every corner,” the agency quoted Rasi as telling Sky TG24 news in an interview.

It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to have any vaccine ready for use this year, Rasi was quoted as saying, adding first shots for people at higher risk for severe illness could be available by the spring.

EMA is reviewing candidate vaccines by drug makers Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna under a real-time release process, in a bid to speed up the approval if trials of any of those vaccines are successful.

Source