Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.After the UK became the first Western country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, EU lawmakers and European politicians spoke out against the speed of the decision.
The move to grant emergency authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been seen by many as a political coup for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has led his country out of the EU and faced criticism for his handling of the pandemic., which allowed the British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to bypass EU regulations and temporarily authorize the vaccine soon after it began examining data from large-scale trials.
A spokesman for the European Commission said the EMA's procedure was "the most effective regulatory mechanism to grant all EU citizens' access to a safe and effective vaccine," as it was based on more evidence. The EMA started a rolling review of preliminary data from Pfizer trials on October 6, an emergency procedure aimed at speeding up possible approval, which usually takes at least seven months from reception of full data.