EU regulator approves Moderna Covid-19 jab

The European Union’s drugs regulator has authorised Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine making the jab the second to receive the watchdog’s approval.

The European Medicines Agency has recommended that the European Commission grant conditional marketing authorisation to the vaccine. The commission is likely to do so quickly.

The EMA has already approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use in EU states but has not yet given the nod to the Oxford-AstraZeneca version.

“This vaccine provides us with another tool to overcome the current emergency,” Emer Cooke, the EMA’s executive director, said. “It is a testament to the efforts and commitment of all involved that we have this second positive vaccine recommendation just short of a year since the pandemic was declared.”

Moderna’s vaccine was the second to pass clinical trials after Pfizer-BioNTech’s. It was 94.1% effective in a trial of 25,000 people aged over 18, the EMA said. It is administered by two injections into the arm 28 days apart.

EU countries lag behind the UK in giving people vaccines. On Sunday Germany had vaccinated about 240,000 and France had achieved a few hundred. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that 1.3m Britons had received a jab.