European Medicines Agency: It is clear that coronavirus vaccines are less effective against the Omicron variant
Ton de Boer, head of the European Medicines Agency, spoke to the Financial Times.
Boer said in his statements in the news:
It is clear that coronavirus vaccines are less effective against the Omicron variant. Consensus on vaccines targeting variants will take time. Data on Omicron is unclear, but it is clear that vaccines show lower efficacy
EU drug regulator recommends use of Novavax vaccine
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the drug regulator of the European Union (EU), recommended the use of the vaccine produced by Novavax, headquartered in the USA, against Kovid-19.
In the statement made by the EMA, it was reported that the vaccine called “Nuvaxovid” can be used in people over the age of 18.
It was stated that the protein-based vaccine, which was administered in two doses three weeks apart, was around 90 percent effective against the disease in studies conducted on 45 thousand people.
In the statement, it was emphasized that there were variants of the virus such as Alpha and Beta during the previous studies, and the data on the effectiveness of the vaccine against the Omicron variant, which has spread rapidly in recent weeks, is limited.
Following the decision of EMA, the vaccine produced by Novavax became the 5th vaccine recommended for use in EU countries against Kovid-19 disease.
The vaccines approved for use in the EU so far are produced by BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson companies.
The EU was contracted to receive 200 million doses of the vaccine, including options, from Novavax. EMA’s decision on conditional market approval of vaccines is a recommendation for the EU Commission. The final approval is given by the EU Commission. The commission is expected to give its approval shortly.
Novavax made the official application for the use of the Kovid-19 vaccine in the EU on 17 November.
Reuters, AA
