The EU says coronavirus variant Omicron could be approved in three to four months.
Brussels, Belgium:
Vaccines specially adapted for the novel coronavirus variant Omicron could be approved within three to four months if they are needed, the head of the EU’s drug regulator said. EU’s pharmaceutical regulator said on Tuesday.
However, the decision on whether the new injections should be made by other bodies, said European Medicines Agency Executive Director Emer Cooke.
“If changes are needed to existing vaccines, we could be ready to approve those within three to four months,” Cooke told a European Parliament committee.
“That’s from when they started to change.”
Her comments came after the head of US vaccine maker Moderna was quoted as saying that existing shots would struggle against the heavily mutated Omicron.
Moderna has said it is working on an Omicron-specific vaccine, as is US rival Pfizer.
Cooke said EU regulators “don’t know yet” whether current vaccines are still effective against Omicron – which she said will take about two weeks to learn – or whether new ones are needed. are not.
“A decision needs to be made in advance whether it is necessary or not, and it is not a decision for the European Medicines Agency,” Cooke said.
To date, the agency has approved four vaccines for use in adults in the EU: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
US company Novavax is expected to make a decision on Thursday “within weeks”, Cooke said.
