Washington, December 1: United States Pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its partner Germany’s BioNTech SE have sought regulatory clearance the European Union for their COVID-19 vaccine. According to reports, the formal application regarding the clearance was submitted on Monday. The application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) was submitted days after the companies sought regulatory approval from the US on November 20. Pfizer Seeks Emergency Approval For COVID-19 Vaccine From US Regulators As Doses Could Be Available by Next Month.

Earlier this month, Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech released the second batch of interim results claiming that their two-dose coronavirus vaccine candidate is 95 per cent effective and also protects the most vulnerable people in older age groups from the risk of falling prey to the virus. The company said that no serious side effects have shown up. COVID-19 Vaccine Covishield Safe, Incident With Chennai Volunteer Not Related to Trials, Says Serum Institute of India.

Pfizer and another US company, Moderna, have broken all vaccine development speed records in their race for a cure over the last nine months. Pfizer and BioNTech expect to produce a total of 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021. US regulators hope to have 20 million vaccine doses each from Moderna and Pfizer available for distribution in late December.

On Monday, Moderna also sought emergency approval of its COVID-19 vaccine from the US and the EU. Moderna claimed that its vaccine against the deadly virus in 94.5 percent efficient. According to Xinhua news agency, the EU will purchase up to 160 million doses of vaccines produced by American pharmaceutical company Moderna.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 01, 2020 05:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).