LONDON – The EMA has issued a positive opinion on Pfizer Inc./Biontech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine, BNT-162b2, becoming the first regulator to recommend a full marketing authorization, rather than approval for emergency use. The vaccine, now brand named Comirnaty, still has to go through the formality of being approved by EU member state governments, but the EU health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, has said she expects roll out to start on Dec. 27.
A day after the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee lent its support to Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine, the agency granted it emergency use authorization (EUA). About 20 million doses will be delivered by the end of December and the rest in the first quarter of 2021, according to Moderna.
The latest global regulatory news, changes and updates affecting biopharma, including: EMA updates on cyberattack; CDSCO extends import leniency; FDA’s obsolete human tissue rule on scrapheap.
LONDON – The COVAX initiative, set up in a bid to ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, is poised for a global rollout starting in Q1 2021, after sealing agreements to access 2 billion doses of a number of different products. That puts the world on a clear pathway to ending the acute phase of the pandemic, by protecting the most vulnerable people around the world, according to GAVI, the vaccines alliance, which is spearheading COVAX.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Amgen, Antegene, Astrazeneca, Canbridge, Karyopharm, Novaremed, Novo Nordisk, Oyster Point, Polaryx, Synairgen.