AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine not ready for quick EU nod: Regulator

Pakistan, Japan find cases with new coronavirus variants on their own soil

The European Medicines Authority (EMA) will most likely not be able to approve the Covid-19 vaccine developed by drug maker AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in January, the watchdog's Deputy Executive Director Noel Wathion said.
 
"They have not even filed an application with us yet", Wathion said in an interview with Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad published on Tuesday.
 
European regulators have only received some information about the vaccine, Wathion said.
 
“Not even enough to warrant a conditional marketing licence”, he said. “We need additional data about the quality of the vaccine. And after that, the company has to formally apply.”  This made it “improbable” that an approval could already be granted next month, Wathion said.
 
UK virus variant detected in Pakistan
 
Pakistan on Tuesday confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus variant found in the UK after it identified the strain that spreads at a much faster pace in three samples taken from passengers who had returned from Britain.
 
The health department in Sindh said the samples of 12 returnees were taken for genotyping, out of which six tested positive.

 
"Samples of 3 UK returnees show a 95 per cent match to the new coronavirus variant from the UK in the first phase of genotyping," it said in a tweet.
 
South Africa variant found in Japan
 
Japan on Monday detected a coronavirus variant found in South Africa, the government said, the first such discovery in a nation that has already identified more than a dozen cases of another variant that is spreading rapidly in Britain.
 
Iran begins first human trial of locally made vaccine
 
The first study of the safety and effectiveness of a coronavirus vaccine in Iran began Tuesday, state TV reported, with dozens due to receive the domestically developed shot even as details about its production remained slim.