EMA approves variation from BioNTech/Pfizer


“These are important and good news. We can get 20 per cent more people vaccinated in short term without taking away the vaccine from anyone “says MEP and EPP health policy spokesperson Dr. Peter Liese.

On Wednesday, EMA approved a variation of Biontech/Pfizer vaccine authorisation to formally allow drawing six instead of five doses form one vial. This requires special syringes so called low-dead-volume or low-dead-space syringes but according to Peter Liese, they are widely available, for example, you can order them for less than one Euro, sometimes only 9 Cent on the Internet. They are widely uses in hospitals, in medical practices and even for patients at home. “I call on everybody to use the vaccine accordingly because this will enable us to vaccinate 20% more Europeans without taking away the vaccine from anyone else.”

At the same time, Liese referred to the other points of his 10 points plan for more vaccination in Europe and the world. He put a lot of hope in the third mRNA vaccine of the German company CureVac that had already started clinical phase three and announced a cooperation with the pharma giant Bayer yesterday. He also thinks that the vaccine of AstraZeneca should not be underestimated. “AstraZeneca made a mistake in the clinical trial but if they deliver more data, it can definitely help to fight the pandemic.” Finally Liese insisted that neither the US nor the UK, can replace the traditional measures against the corona virus such as keeping distance, wearing a mask as well as ventilation through vaccination in the next weeks. „The most important measure against the virus is still to keep up being careful. I am confident that vaccination will be taking over as a main measure in spring and we can stop the pandemic in the course of this year“, Liese concluded.