Astrazeneca presented the request for the emergency marketing of the vaccine to the EMA against Covid-19 developed together with the University of Oxford and produced by Irbm of Pomezia. After the Pfizer and Moderna serums, the third vaccine could soon arrive.
VACCINES: EMA TOWARDS OK AT ASTRAZENECA
The Astrazeneca vaccine has already been authorized by the United Kingdom, India, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Morocco.
According to forecasts, the ok from the European Medicines Agency should arrive within the 29 January. “Ema will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. Once it gets a positive scientific opinion, we will work at full speed to authorize its use in Europe,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
So it will take less time than expected, which means that the first doses of the European vaccine could arrive as early as the first weeks of February. The reason is obvious: the EMA has already examined some data on the serum - including information on laboratory studies, on the quality and safety of the vaccine - and therefore the process will be faster.
For Italy, the ok to Astrazeneca would be a very important novelty. Our country has already booked 40,4 million doses of serum and by the end of the first quarter, 16 million doses could already arrive, which would allow about 8 million people to be vaccinated.
THE MODERN VACCINE HAS ARRIVED IN ITALY
The good news about vaccines didn't end there. During the night, the trucks containing the first doses of the Moderna vaccine crossed the Italian borders, approved on January 6th from Ema. In numbers we are talking about 47 thousand doses of the 764 thousand which should arrive in our country between January and February. Starting today we will have two vaccines available: Pfizer's, which has been administered to 718.797 people since the end of December, and Moderna's.
HOW DOES THE MODERN VACCINE WORK?
Moderna said immunity from its vaccine should last about a year. The manufacturer also said it is confident that the technology of theRna messenger (mRna), used by the vaccine, is also suitable for combating variants of the virus that have recently emerged in some countries.
The vaccine comes stored between -15° and -25° degrees, but it is stable between 2° and 8° for 30 days if in unopened package. According to the instructions provided by the company, 94% immunity it is reached two weeks after the administration of the second dose, which is inoculated at least 28 days after the first. In its FAQs, Aifa clarified that those who received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine will have to continue with Pfizer and will not be able to take the second dose with Moderna.
In Italy the vaccine will be distributed by Poste Italiane, through its express courier Sda. The company explains in a note that it has "equipped 40 vans with 1.300-litre refrigerated cells each and will take care of the delivery with a dedicated network that will connect the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome directly with the Local Health Authorities and the hospitals concerned from this first supply”.
NEWS FROM PFIZER
Meanwhile Pfizer and BioNtech have announced that by the end of 2021 they will produce 2 billion doses of their anti-Covid-19 vaccine, increasing production by more than 50%. The new goal is possible because it will be possible to extract six doses instead of five from each vial of vaccine. The change "increases the number of vaccine doses by 20 percent," BioNTech Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin said at the JPMorgan conference.
