Prognosis
Covid Vaccine ‘Unlikely’ to Be Ready for Use This Year in EU
- Reviews of front-runner shots may take time, regulator says
- Countries shouldn’t approve shots on their own: EMA head
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A Covid-19 vaccine is looking “unlikely” by year-end, according to the head of Europe’s drug regulator, even as the agency conducts sped-up reviews of two front-runners for a successful shot.
“Technically, of course it’s possible. Practically it’s very difficult -- it’s very unlikely,” Guido Rasi, executive director of the European Medicines Agency, said Thursday in an interview. Even if drugmakers “submit the data in a few weeks, we are already approaching middle of October, so if we wait a few weeks and we take a minimum time of evaluation, more or less we are at the end of the year.”