German pharmaceutical company CureVac said on Friday it had begun sending data to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as part of the ongoing review of its COVID-19 vaccine.
The company, based in the southern German city of Tübingen, is still conducting clinical trials, but the real-time review process makes it possible for the agency to look at the data piece by piece as it is published. This is expected to reduce the time required for the regulator to reach an approval decision.
The CureVac puncture used the same mRNA technology as the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, which is also produced in Germany, and the Modern vaccine made in the United States.
How far is the CureVac vaccine?
Vaccine trials against healthy adults are currently being conducted in Europe and Latin America. Mass testing began in December and the company expects to get results from the study in March or April.
The EMA based its decision to initiate the review of the CureVac vaccine on preliminary results of laboratory studies and initial clinical trials.
A statement on the EMA website said: “These studies suggest that the vaccine triggers the production of antibodies and immune cells targeted to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.”
To date, the EU has authorized the use of three vaccines: those from BioNTech-Pfizer, Oxford University-AstraZeneca and Moderna. All were approved based on ongoing reviews.
The EU is pushing for more vaccine doses
The EU has received strong criticism for the slow deployment of vaccination programs across the bloc. CureVac’s CAB is expected to alleviate some of the problems, as the continent sees an increase in infections.
CureVac is also working alongside British company GSK to develop another vaccine that can target several of the COVID-19 variants with a single shot.
The German company took over the world headlines in March last year when then-US President Donald Trump tried to secure exclusive access to its vaccines for the US.
The company quickly rejected any idea selling its technology.
ab / dj (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)