The vaccine with the official name VLA2001 had already been approved in Great Britain in April (symbol image)
Source: Martin Schutt/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
Since December, experts from the European Medicines Agency have checked all the data on the preparation from the French pharmaceutical company Valneva. Now “VLA2001” is to be released as the sixth vaccine against the corona virus in the EU for 18 to 50 year olds.
DThe European Medicines Agency (EMA) has given the green light for the approval of the corona vaccine from the French pharmaceutical company Valneva for the EU market. The preparation should initially be approved for people between the ages of 18 and 50, the EMA announced on Thursday in Amsterdam. Officially, the EU Commission still has to agree, but that is considered a formality. This will be the sixth coronavirus vaccine in the EU.
The EMA experts had been examining all data from studies and tests on the vaccine, officially named VLA2001, since December. It was approved in the UK in April.
VLA2001 is given in two doses and is designed to help the body protect itself from infection with the virus. The preparation contains inactive, i.e. killed, viruses. These cannot lead to infection and disease, but they stimulate the formation of antibodies.
After a thorough review, the experts decided that the data on the vaccine was robust and met EU criteria for efficacy, safety and quality. Since there is not enough data on the effects on people older than 50 years, the preparation should initially only be approved up to this age. According to the EMA experts, it has not yet been possible to determine how effective the vaccine is against the omicron variant of the virus.
Possible side effects were described as predominantly mild and short-term. These included pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache and muscle pain, and nausea.