EU speeds up approval process for Oxford/AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine

European Medicines Agency’s assessment of drug already used in Britain will be ‘accelerated’

A nurse administers the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at a clinic in southern England. EPA

AstraZeneca has applied to the European Union for approval of the Covid-19 vaccine it made with Oxford University, which is already in use in the UK.

A decision could be made as early as January 29 under an accelerated timeline, the European Medicines Agency said.

Should it be approved, it would be the third Covid-19 vaccine authorised for use in the EU after the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna drugs.

“EMA has received an application for conditional marketing authorisation for a Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University,” the Amsterdam-based agency said.

AstraZeneca’s application was good news, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Britain started using the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine last week, as the third national lockdown was imposed on England and a mutated strain rampaged through the country.

Unlike the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna products, the drug does not require very cold storage temperatures, making it more suitable for less wealthy parts of the world.

AstraZeneca has been criticised over a lack of clarity and transparency on trials, which reported varying levels of efficacy.

Initial large-scale trials in the UK and Brazil, in which volunteers were given two full doses showed 62 per cent effectiveness. But in volunteers who received a half dose first and then a full dose one month later, the vaccine was found to have 90 per cent efficacy.

The product has been approved in Argentina, India and El Salvador, with more countries currently considering authorisation.

In the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, a weakened version of a common cold virus found in chimpanzees is used to carry coronavirus genes around the body. These genes have been altered to prevent them replicating in humans.