Few medicines are awaited as eagerly as COVID-19 vaccines. Extraordinary efforts by scientists, regulators, and developers enabled the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to recommend the first EU conditional marketing authorisation (CMA) for the BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (nucleoside-modified) BNT162b2 (Comirnaty)1some 9 months after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared.

On Dec 21, 2020, the European Commission granted CMA, following the EMA’s positive opinion, to BNT162b2 for active immunisation of individuals aged 16 years and older to prevent COVID-19, which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

The approvals of the first COVID-19 vaccines in the EU are a key milestone in the response to COVID-19. The first EU marketing authorisations for COVID-19 vaccines not only offer hope to control the pandemic but also provide proof of concept for a new approach to vaccine development in response to future emerging health threats.

Read the full article on the Lancet here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00085-4/fulltext