European Commission – COVID-19 advisory panel
rate
from the ESI fund, and in the case of obligatory purchase contracts Member States have
5 days to opt out. The decision is then binding on Member States. The question remains how to
design conditions at key time intervals to monitor safety and to negotiate it. The Panel was
confronted with the question of whether conditionalities were indeed explicit enough within the
current process.
The Panel acknowledged that the big unknown remains the safety of those vaccines and access to
full data. The Panel gave the positive example of the recently approved Ebola vaccine by J&J whose
safety was assessed as very good; the same platform is now used for the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Chair pointed out that
The storage requirements for Moderna and BioNTech were more particular, with
The Panel did not highlight any scientific issue of consequence with the candidates put forward by
on the basis of available scientific data. All three are credible companies
with good past track record in developing pharmaceutical products. The Panel commended the
European Commission for its efforts to shape the development, manufacturing and distribution of a
successful vaccine, whilst also leading on covering global needs. They stressed that this leadership
should remain in Europe. The Chair confirmed that there are indeed big considerations to be made
in how to move forward in the realm of public health after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chair concluded by thanking the Panel for the discussion, for their positive opinion and noting
the importance of maintaining weekly meetings of this nature on other vaccine candidates.
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European Commission – COVID-19 advisory panel
Annex
Participants in the audioconference:
x European Commission: S. Gallina (Chair), G. Rossides,
(Minutes)
x
x
Observers:
x Andrea Ammon (ECDC Director)
x
(EMA)
Excused:
x
x
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