the european medicines agency

Europe's drug regulator is under increasing pressure to quickly approve the Covid-19 vaccine developed by US giant Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech, officials said, as inoculations get started in Britain and the United States.

The push underscores the frictions between regulators and governments wishing to curb the pandemic that has killed more than 1.6 million people worldwide.

An official at Greece's Health Ministry on Friday expressed confidence that the country would have complete vaccination coverage for the novel coronavirus by June next year.

"We believe that we can accomplish the vaccination of the entire population within the next six months," Health Ministry General Secretary Marios Themistokelous told state broadcaster ERT.

"Between the second and third quarter of next year, we will potentially be able to vaccinate the entire population".

This was stated by the Commissioner for the emergency, Domenico Arcuri, during a hearing in the Italian parliament.

Italy is entitled to 13.46% of the vaccine doses that will be gradually distributed by EU.

Berlin/Ljubljana – Health Minister Tomaž Gantar attended a video conference with EU counterparts on Wednesday discussing the current state of the coronavirus pandemic and the proposed EU strategy for a coronavirus vaccine. He stressed more cooperation and coordination was need at the EU level.

The European Union criticised Britain's rapid approval of Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, saying its own procedure was more thorough, after Britain became the first western country to endorse a Covid-19 shot.

Britain on Dec. 2 became the first country to approve Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for general use and said it would be introduced next week.    

Europe's drugs watchdog said on Thursday it expects to receive the first application for conditional marketing approval for a Covid-19 vaccine "in the coming days", the latest step towards making a shot available outside the United States.

The European Union's healthcare regulator said that no drug shortages or supply disruptions have been reported in the region but that an EU steering group had convened to prevent supply bottlenecks due to the coronavirus outbreak.

"As the public health emergency develops, shortages or disruptions cannot be excluded," the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The sale of medicines containing ranitidine will be stopped in Bulgaria. This was reported by the Bulgarian Drug Agency (BDA).

Greece's National Organisation for Medicines (EOF) announced it is recalling yet two more lines of an over-the-counter heartburn medication containing the drug ranitidine, over fears that production lines have been contaminated with the potential carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA.