EU criticizes 'hasty' UK approval of Covid-19 vaccine

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.

The move to grant emergency authorisation to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been seen by many as a political coup for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has led his country out of the EU and faced criticism for his handling of the pandemic.

The decision was made under an ultra-fast, emergency approval process, which allowed the British drugs regulator to temporarily authorise the vaccine only ten days after it began examining data from large-scale trials.

In an unusually blunt statement, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is in charge of approving Covid-19 vaccines for the EU, said its longer approval procedure was more...