The European Commission had previously defended the bloc against criticism of its slow deployment, saying its plans would get the EU going “for a long time”.
The EU drug watchdog suspended the authorization of Moderna’s coronavirus cloth on Monday despite presenting a special meeting, as criticism over the slow deployment of the block’s vaccine escalated.
The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it would resume talks on Wednesday on whether to give the green light to what would be the EU’s second vaccine.
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Under pressure from EU nations to speed up, the regulator had previously speeded up the meeting to decide on approval from January 12 to Wednesday and, again, until Monday.
Despite starting its vaccination campaign with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, on December 27, EU progress has been much slower than in the United States, Britain or Israel.
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“The EMA committee for the debate on human drugs on the Covid-19 (per) Moderna vaccine has not concluded today. It will continue on Wednesday,” the EMA said on Twitter.
“No further communication will be issued by EMA today.”
The European Commission had previously defended the bloc against criticism of its slow deployment and said its plans would get the EU to overcome the “potholes on the road”.
“Obviously such a complex effort will always lead to difficulties,” Eric Mamer told reporters.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, developed in Germany, is the only one currently authorized for use in the European Union since its rapid authorization by the EMA on 21 December.
The United States is using it in conjunction with the Modern vaccine, while in Britain from Monday it also began using one from the British pharmaceutical giant, AstraZeneca.
EU countries are far behind. France, for example, has hit just over 500 people for the first time. Germany has begun immunizing 200,000.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands, the latest in the EU to start its vaccination program, said it would advance the start of punctures, from two days to Wednesday.
The European Commission stressed that it had bought access to “almost two billion doses” of six potential vaccines, four times the population of the entire European Union.
The U.S.-based Moderna stroke was found to be 94.1% effective in preventing Covid-19 compared to a placebo in a 30,400-person clinical trial, with slightly better performance in adults. younger compared to the elderly.
The EMA said last week that the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, approved on Wednesday in Britain, is unlikely to get a green light in the EU next month.
The fact that the watchdog moved from London to Amsterdam after Brexit has fueled comments about how Britain had been able to move faster after leaving the EU.